When you hear people talk about car accident injury statistics, they often talk about fatalities. For example, you’ve likely heard that nearly 40,000 people die in car accidents every year. This stat is generally trending down, but it’s reliably between 35,000 and 40,000 in recent years.
What you’re wondering, though, is how many people get injured. You know that injuries are vastly more common than fatalities. If you get involved in an accident, odds strongly support the position that you’ll survive, but you may be hurt. What do those statistics tell us?
6 million accidents happen every year
First of all, there are roughly 6 million annual crashes. Many are minor, such as someone backing into another car in a parking lot. Others are major. But that still means there are more than 16,000 daily accidents.
People suffer injuries in about half of those crashes or 3 million annual injuries. Roughly two-thirds of those injuries (2 million) are permanent. That does not mean that no healing will take place, but that the level of healing will not bring the person back to exactly where they were before the crash. For instance, someone with a back injury may regain their general mobility, but they may still experience chronic pain or become more likely to hurt their back again in the future.
Exploring your options after a wreck
It’s clear that you could become injured in an accident this year. It will happen to 8,000 people today, just as it did yesterday. If you’re in that group, be sure you explore all of your legal options.
