Car Insurance Accident Statistics

It's interesting to look at accident statistics over the years.  While the population of the US has increased dramatically, traffic accidents and fatalities haven't increased at the same rate.  In other words, it appears that improvements in roads, our vehicles, and required safety devices are helping matters.  Auto insurance rates have continued to rise however...  Car Insurance Accident Statistics, while not rosy, have not kept pace with the growth in population-- and I think we can all agree that's a good thing.

Two years out of the last ten have seen decreases in average car insurance expenditures (1998-1999), but for the most part we see a steady increase year after year.  It's probable that we can blame the increases on a few key causes:

-- Vehicles are becoming more sophisticated resulting in higher repair
    costs.
-- The United States can sometimes be a bit litigious.  More cases
    wind up in court with attorney penetration causing a big increase
    in costs associated with fighting liability claims.
-- Medical costs have risen dramatically.  We can blame, in part, the
    the great care we take when it comes to ensuring our facilities
    have the best doctors and top of the line (translation: very
    expensive) equipment.  But attorneys tend to be a part of the
    problem in this category too... at least when it comes to frivolous
    claims against well meaning health care professionals.  Some
    doctors have hung up their stethoscopes due to the simple fact
    they can no longer afford the expense of Malpractice insurance. 

Car Insurance Accident Statistics - Accidents, Deaths, Injuries

Highway accidents
The 2007 National Data Book from the US Census Bureau actually shows a steady average in car insurance accident statistics since 1980.  In 1980, there were 6,216,000 highway accidents and in 2004, there were 6,181,000.  The average number of accidents per year since 1980 is 6,386,000-- although this is only based on 13 years of data since car insurance accident statistics were only reported in 5 year intervals from 1980-1995.

Deaths
The United States has, on average since 1970, 43,900 deaths as a result of highway accidents.  A low of 41,500 was reported in 1998 and the highest figure came in 1970-- 52,600.

Injuries
The last reported year of data for this statistic was 2004.  We saw the fewest injuries in that year than in any other reported time period since 1980!  The average number of highway related accident injuries is 3,153,000 per year since 1980.

Conclusion...  If the number of accidents, deaths, and injuries has remained fairly constant even though there are more cars on the road and more people perfectly capable of bumping into one another-- what again is the reason for the increase in auto insurance premiums over the years?  An increase in premium paying customers but no real increases in deaths, injuries, and accidents should mean insurance companies are practically printing their own money, right?  Wrong.  I've already touched on some of the reasons for the increases in premiums but the telling numbers are the reported incurred losses by insurance companies since 2001.  The NAIC reported a nearly $3 billion increase in incurred losses from 2001 to 2005.  So we're getting safer-- but the costs of repairs to physical property, medical expenses, court room litigation costs, and the number of trained employees an insurance company needs to have to take good care of customers are a mix that can only mean one thing-- higher insurance premiums.  Car insurance accident statistics have gotten less bleak-- but the costs of those statistics remain on the uptick in the form of your insurance premiums.

This doesn't mean you can't still save money on car insurance though... Enter your state of residence above for your free quotes from multiple providers.