The costs of motor vehicle injuries.

This paper describes the results of a report to Congress, "Cost of Injury in the United States" (October 1989). The research for this report, funded by the National Highway Safety Administration, Office of Research and Development, was performed by the Institute for Health and Ageing, University of California, San Francisco, under the direction of Dorothy P. Rice; and the Injury Prevention Centre, The Johns Hopkins University, under the direction of Ellen J. MacKenzie. The report documents the costs and incidence of injury for 1985 by cause, age, and gender. The causes of injury identified were motor vehicle accidents, falls, firearms, poisonings, fires and burns, drownings, and other causes. The author focuses on the findings for motor vehicle injuries, comparing these with other causes of injury. The total lifetime cost of injury from all causes was $158 billion in 1985, with motor vehicles - single most costly category - accounting for $49 billion. Motor vehicle fatalities represented 35 percent of total injury fatalities, 22 percent of hospitalised injuries, and 9 percent of non-hospitalised injuries. (A)