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NEW JERSEY PROBLEM IDENTIFICATIONEach year, 325,000 people are injured in car crashes on the job and 5,000,000 more are injured away from the job. These crashes cost employers $11.5 billion annually. Due to the escalating costs to business and because crashes are the leading killer of workers, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the state highway safety offices have placed greater emphasis on outreach to and through business and industry. To achieve the national traffic safety goals to reduce fatalities and injuries, increase seatbelt use, reduce levels of impaired driving, the business community must be educated to get involved. The business community should be made aware of the magnitude and cost of crashes, the cost of establishing safety programs, and the economic savings associated with such programs. There have been several studies quantifying the economic cost of crashes and savings from traffic safety programs to a particular business. However, employers in Region II (among the largest employers in the nation) have not been part of these studies. As a result, the highway safety offices in New York and New Jersey must use data and specific examples from other outside jurisdictions when developing employer-based highway safety programs. However, it can be difficult to motivate employers in New York and New Jersey to establish programs based on studies of other types of businesses. GOALS AND OBJECTIVESThe purpose of this project was to study the economic cost of crashes to a large business in Region II in order to accomplish the following objectives:
STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIESThe New Jersey State Safety Council (NJSSC) identified and studied a large utility company in Region II that employed over 10,000 employees and had a fleet of over 6,360 vehicles. The NJSSC conducted the following activities for the case study:
RESULTSThe utility company concluded that it had suffered 150 collisions in 2001. The company estimated that the collisions cost $325,000 or averaged about $2,100 per collision. These figures were confined vehicle repairs and medical expenses. However, by using the software model, the estimated cost of all the cases amounted to $1.9 million, with an average cost of each crash being $9,300 in direct costs and $3,520 in indirect costs, for a total of $12,820 per crash. The software model provided a true accounting of all
the costs involved with the accidents. In one particular case, when a
worker suffered a serious injury and was off the job for 77 days, the
employer calculated the cost of the crash (including medical payments,
workers comp and vehicle replacement) to be $58,000. In fact, the model
showed this particular crash to cost the employer $337,000. |