A look at car accidents by the numbers

More than one million days in the hospital. More than $18 billion in medical costs. More than $33 billion in lost work. Those are just some of the stunning numbers to come from the federal government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a recent report on motor vehicle accidents.

Think about it: every year, Americans spend more than a million days in hospitals because of their car crash injuries (in 2012, more than 2.5 million Americans were taken to hospital emergency rooms for accident injuries). And we spend more than three-quarters of that $18 billion on lifetime medical costs in the first 18 months following the accident injury.

Every time one of us is taken to an emergency department following a crash, the average cost is about $3,300. Each accident-related hospitalization results in a tab over that person’s lifetime that goes to about $57,000 on average.

The statistics can be a bit overwhelming. They’re especially difficult when they’re no longer abstract but are instead a real part of your family’s life because of another driver’s recklessness or other behind-the-wheel negligence.

For some families who have a loved one injured in a Tulsa car accident, the medical bills quickly become unmanageable. And of course, when the bills (and accompanying pain, time away from work, surgeries, etc.) are the result of someone else’s distracted driving or drunken driving, the debt should not be yours to shoulder. The burden should be placed on the person responsible for the crash.

That’s where an experienced Oklahoma personal injury attorney can help shift the financial burden from the victim to the person who caused the damage.

Source: CDC, “Motor Vehicle Crash Injuries,” accessed Oct. 10, 2014