The annual employer cost of motor vehicle crashes in which at least one driver was alcohol-impaired exceeds $9 billion, including wage-risk premiums (Table 7). Out of this, $3.1 billion comes from alcohol involvement. Table 7. Employer's Costs of Alcohol-Involved Motor Vehicle Crashes (In millions of 2000 dollars.) Employer Costs of Crashes by State Table 8 details employer costs of motor vehicle crash injuries, on- and off-the-job, by state. Costs per employee vary widely by state. Differences in injury severity, age of workforce, regional and local characteristics, and completeness of reporting cause the variance. Critically, the methods for calculating state costs (documented in the Appendix) ignore differences in non-fatal injury severity between states. This weakness probably produces cost estimates that are too low in rural states relative to urban states, which typically have lower average speeds and consequently less severe injuries. view Table 8 Differences in labor force participation rates and family size between states could cause employer costs per employee to vary even if safety levels and prices were equal. Cost differences between states may reflect price and income variations more than differences in safety. Finally, differences between states may result from differing completeness of reporting of occupational or crash injuries rather than actual differences in injury rates. Table 9 provides estimates of employer costs of alcohol-involved injuries by state. These estimates account for regional differences in alcohol-impaired driving. They were obtained by assuming that the ratio between and costs of alcohol use remain the same across the states. employers’ society’s
The annual employer cost of motor vehicle crashes in which at least one driver was alcohol-impaired exceeds $9 billion, including wage-risk premiums (Table 7). Out of this, $3.1 billion comes from alcohol involvement. Table 7. Employer's Costs of Alcohol-Involved Motor Vehicle Crashes (In millions of 2000 dollars.) Employer Costs of Crashes by State Table 8 details employer costs of motor vehicle crash injuries, on- and off-the-job, by state. Costs per employee vary widely by state. Differences in injury severity, age of workforce, regional and local characteristics, and completeness of reporting cause the variance. Critically, the methods for calculating state costs (documented in the Appendix) ignore differences in non-fatal injury severity between states. This weakness probably produces cost estimates that are too low in rural states relative to urban states, which typically have lower average speeds and consequently less severe injuries. view Table 8 Differences in labor force participation rates and family size between states could cause employer costs per employee to vary even if safety levels and prices were equal. Cost differences between states may reflect price and income variations more than differences in safety. Finally, differences between states may result from differing completeness of reporting of occupational or crash injuries rather than actual differences in injury rates. Table 9 provides estimates of employer costs of alcohol-involved injuries by state. These estimates account for regional differences in alcohol-impaired driving. They were obtained by assuming that the ratio between employers’ and society’s costs of alcohol use remain the same across the states.
What-Do-Traffic-Crashes-Cost.docx