People do not die in the majority of car accidents in the United States. You have many crashes that lead to injuries and property damage. That said, looking at the fatalities makes things easy to track and may open your eyes to the risks you face on the road. They’re greater than a lot of people realize.
According to the National Safety Council (NSC), 39,404 people died in car accidents in the United States in 2018. When you look at recent years, you will find that they generally sit around 35,000-40,000 traffic fatalities. The NSC notes that this is a massive increase from when they started tracking the numbers, but that was back in 1913, and the way we use cars today is much different.
In any case, with that many annual deaths, it comes out to a daily average of just under 108 deaths. That is similar to having a domestic airliner go down every single day. If that happened, people would fear flying and would probably refuse to do it. However, since car accidents are spread out — you’re looking at an average of around two daily deaths per state — they’re easier to overlook. Many people do not know just how many people lose their lives.
Again, that’s not even considering all of the severe and often life-changing injuries. Most accidents do not even result in the loss of life.
You can see that the risks on America’s highways are very real. If you get injured or lose a family member, you need to know how to seek compensation.