Car accidents cost Australians almost $30 billion a year
Every road fatality costs the economy $4.34 million.
Road accidents are costing the Australian economy $29.7 billion dollars a year according to a study commissioned by the Australian Automobile Association (AAA).
The AAA report, Cost of Road Trauma in Australia, provides a detailed account of the financial costs levied on the Australian economy by road accidents.
“More than 100 Australians are killed in car crashes every month and the same number are seriously injured every day, so the significance of this problem cannot be overstated," AAA chief executive Michael Bradley said in a statement.
The study estimated the cost of hospitalisation for injury at $239,000, with a fatality costing the economy $4.34 million.
Non-hospitalised injuries were estimated to cost $12,000 and those left disabled were estimated to cost $694,000.
“The social cost of road deaths is both obvious and immeasurable, however the economic implications of Australia’s road safety crisis are not," Bradley said.
The analysis found that $9.2 billion went towards the cost of life, health and wellbeing.
Interestingly, vehicle damage and insurance administration cost the economy $4.2 billion and $1.1 billion respectively.
In July 2017, the finder.com.au Safe Driving Report found that 70% of Australians engaged in reckless behaviour while behind the wheel of a car, with one third admitting to using their phone while driving.
Disturbingly, 10% of drivers admitted to having had a microsleep while driving. This echoes a concern from the Sleep Health Foundation, which said that tired drivers were responsible for more than 10% of all road deaths.
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