WASHINGTON — Traffic accidents cost U.S. motorists more than $160 billion a year, according to a AAA research report.
The study, out today, found that crashes have a much more damaging impact on society than the bumper-to- bumper congestion that riles commuters in many metropolitan areas.
Maryland-based Cambridge Systematics Inc., which conducted the research for the automobile association, found that crashes cost U.S. motorists $164.2 billion a year, or about $1,051 a person.
That’s more than double the $67.6 billion in annual costs from congestion, or about $430 a person.
To calculate the crash costs, researchers took into account factors such as property damage, lost earnings, medical costs, emergency services, legal costs and travel delays.
The nation’s largest cities, such as New York and Los Angeles, face billions of dollars in costs each year from car accidents. In the New York metropolitan area, they cost the region $18 billion a year or about $962 a person, while they cost Los Angeles more than $10 billion a year, or $817 a person.
For the Denver area, the cost was put at $1.83 billion each year, or $776 a person.
