By Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog, Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog.
The Centers for Disease Control released a study that provides a wealth of information that puts the risks and costs of car, truck and motorcycle accidents in this country in context, particularly with respect to teenage drivers:
- Vehicle accidents cost $100 billion in medical care and productivity losses every year. Almost 4% of the economic losses involve children.
- Every 10 seconds, a victim of a car accident is treated in an emergency room for accident related injuries. Almost 40,000 people die in accidents every year.
- Not surprisingly, motorcycle accidents cause the most significant injuries. Motorcycle accidents comprise 6% of the total but 12% of the overall costs. Pedestrians and bicyclists are in a similar boat, causing 5% of the motor vehicle-related deaths and injuries and 10% of the economic costs.
- Teenagers are four times more likely to be involved in auto accidents. New rules such as driving curfews and other restrictions are helping reduce the number of car accidents involving teenagers. But a few smart rules don't flip a number like "4 times as many." The only answer is to change the law that gives teenagers their licenses. But there is no real inertia for that because (1) it has always been this way, (2) it is more convenient for parents than having to continue to chauffer their kids, and (3) teenagers have jobs and their inability to get to their jobs would have economic repercussions. Oh, and yes, changing the law to not allow teenagers to drive could and would probably start an armed revolution. But the fact that nine teenagers a day die in car accidents - most of which are the teen driver's fault - is a bitter price to pay. I don't know of a single reasonable person who supports raising the driving age to 20. But still. It is a bitter price we pay. (And, yes, I know I just said that twice.)
- Male teenage drivers are twice as likely to be killed in crashes as females. This is another "what do you do about this?" statistic. We allow for insurance companies to charge higher premiums for teenage boys. Why can't we make different driving ages for boys and girls? Oh, forget it, I guess I know why we can't.
- One in every three teenage deaths is the result of a motor vehicle crash.
Originally posted at Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog. Please visit http://www.marylandinjurylawyerblog.com/.
I spent a good portion of last week preparing for a trial scheduled for today that settled on Friday. It is a little depressing how many man hours our firm spends every year preparing cases for trial that settle. But every time you really prepare for a trial, you learn and, sometimes more importantly, relearn law and strategies that help you down the road.
One insanely overused method of avoiding getting to the merits of a case is claiming the defendant driver was not a permissive user. Insurance companies often take remarkably strained views of what is required to allow permission for another to use the owner's vehicle.
Ask any accident lawyer about the use of statistics in valuing personal injury accident cases, and you will get an almost universal answer: they have little or no utility. Yet I've never looked away from average verdict data and I've never known a personal injury lawyer who did. Even if you conclude it is useless, you can't help but be curious.
