Pedestrian and pedalcyclist injury costs in the United States by age and injury severity.

Abstract

This paper estimates the incidence, unit costs, and annual costs of pedestrian and pedalcycle crash injuries in the United States. It includes medical care costs, household and wage work losses, and the value of pain, suffering, and lost quality of life. The estimates are broken down by body region and severity. They rely heavily on data from the health care system. Costs of pedestrian and pedalcycle injuries in 2000 will total 40 billion dollars over the lifetimes of the injured. Most pedalcyclist injury costs and half of pedestrian injury costs do not involve motor vehicles. Youth ages 5-14 face greater annual risks when walking or driving their own pedaled vehicles than when being driven. Children under age 5 experience higher costs than their elders when injured as pedestrians. Our results suggest European and Japanese component tests used to design pedestrian injury countermeasures for motor vehicles are too narrow. Separate lower limb testing is needed for younger children. Testing for torso/vertebral column injury of adults also seems desirable.