Costs of large truck- and bus-involved crashes.

This study provides comprehensive, economically sophisticated estimates of the costs of highway crashes involving large trucks and buses by severity. Based on the latest data available, the estimated cost of police-reported crashes involving trucks with a gross weight rating of more than 10,000 pounds averaged $75,637 (in 1999 dollars). The average cost of police-reported crashes involving transit or inter-city buses was $54,455 per crash. These costs represent the present value, computed at a 4% discount rate, of all costs over the victims' expected life span that result from a crash. They include medically related costs, emergency services costs, property damage costs, lost productivity, and the monetized value of the pain, suffering, and quality of life that the family loses because of a death or injury.