The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) began to evaluate its Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) in 1975. By December 2004, NHTSA had evaluated the life-saving benefits as well as the consumer cost for a substantial “core” group of safety technologies for passenger cars and LTVs (pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles and vans). In 2002, these technologies added an estimated $11,353,000,000 (in 2002 Dollars) to the cost of new cars and LTVs of that model year. They saved an estimated 20,851 lives in the cars and LTVs on the road during that calendar year. That amounts to $544,482 per life saved in 2002. These technologies added a total of $189,842,000,000 to the consumer cost of new cars and LTVs over model years 1968-2002. They saved 252,989 lives in model year 1968 and later vehicles during calendar years 1968-2002. That amounts to $750,782 (in 2002 Dollars) per life saved in 1968-2002. (Author/publisher)
Abstract