The majority of my civil cases involve calculating the lost earnings and lost earning capacity resulting from injuries caused by car crashes. The cost of these crashes is enormous. As a Dutchman, I did some research comparing these costs between the Netherlands and the United States. The topography of both countries is very different. I doubt whether a comparison is reasonable. However, Road Safety Data from the International Transport Forum of the OECD showed some interesting of facts:
- Over time, the cost of road crashes is approximately 2% of GDP in the Netherlands. The cost of road crashes in the USA is between 1 and 6%.
- In 2019 there were 3.8 traffic deaths per 100,000 inhabitants while in the USA 11.0.
- In the Netherlands, fatalities were found in 36% of the cases in passenger car occupants, 14% motor cyclists, 7% pedestrians, 31% cyclists, 7% moped riders, and 5% others. In the USA, fatalities were found in 34% of the cases in passenger car occupants, 14% motor cyclists, 18% pedestrians, 2% cyclists, 0% moped riders, and 32% others (apparently this category includes SUV, van, pickup truck and large truck occupants).
- Deaths per billion vehicle kilometers, in the USA, went down from 9.5 in 2000 to 6.9 in 2019. I could not find Dutch data to compare but I expect that the high usage of bicycles makes the comparison to the high usage of motor vehicles in the USA not very useful.
- The NHTSA (Blinco et al., 2015) found significant costs associated with accidents. Cost components include productivity losses, property damages, medical costs, rehabilitation costs, congestion costs, legal and court costs, emergency services such as medical, police and fire services, insurance administration costs, and costs to employers. They also found that speeding and alcohol-impaired were the highest cost components.
These reports can be found at https://www.itf-oecd.org/sites/default/files/united-states-road-safety.pdf and https://www.itf-oecd.org/sites/default/files/netherlands-road-safety.pdf also you may like to watch “why is the Netherlands so insanely well designed.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP-G-inkkDg. This video seems to promote bicycling which may be healthy if you don’t crash.
If you like us to help with assessing the cost of a personal injury case, please don’t hesitate to call me.