Blood Money: The High Cost of Fatal Traffic Accidents in Texas

Blood Money: The High Cost of Fatal Traffic Accidents in Texas
You see a lot of vehicle safety studies and crash tests conducted, sponsored, or commissioned by insurance groups. For instance, a study of the incidence of distracted driving by the Governors Highway Safety Association received grant support from the State Farm insurance agency. The strong insurer participation in and support for these studies exists because fatal traffic accidents and other vehicle accidents cost insurance agencies colossal amounts of money each year.
The insurance company costs aren't just the vehicle damage and replacement costs for your Pearland, TX wreck. No: those are but drops in the bucket of their vast outlays. Their major costs are outlays for medical expenses, ongoing medical care costs, wrongful death damages, survival damages, and other costs relating to the human toll these road accidents take. These enormous insurance outlays exist in spite of concerted efforts by insurance adjusters and insurance defense teams to reduce your damages or dismiss your claims wherever they can.
And what must really bug the insurers is that so many of these road accidents remain unnecessary and preventable. Take away:
* Drunk driving,
* Distracted driving,
* Reckless driving, and
* Road rage,
And what have you got? Maybe a pleasant commute to work in Pearland, TX with no obscene gestures directed your way, no near misses from drivers weaving in and out of traffic at high speeds, and no lengthy delays from traffic snarls caused by unnecessary traffic accidents.
But insurance companies only bear a fraction of the losses relating to Pearland, TX fatal traffic accidents. Victims, their families, and the government must pick up the rest of the tab. And a mighty tab it is. Texas actually holds the 2nd spot on the list of state costs from fatal traffic accidents. That cost is $3.5 BILLION per year in Texas alone according to the CDC in Atlanta. The CDC data only accounts for medical expenses and lost wages. It doesn't even include such things as your vehicle damages costs, legal costs and expenses paid by your insurance.
Clearly, the costs from serious injury accidents or fatal traffic accidents could wipe out a family's resources. The value of the lost family bonds from fatal traffic accidents is incalculable. A young woman died in a violent truck underride accident in Houston, TX this weekend, possibly because of distracted driving. We can avoid some of the risks of incurring fatal accidents and their losses if we avoid drunk, reckless or distracted driving. But until we can prevent those actions in others, the risk of costly fatal traffic accidents in Pearland, TX remains.