Nevada Car Accident Statistics

Traffic accidents are a fact of life in the modern United States. With so many cars and trucks on the road, the country’s roadways are increasingly under pressure and the older infrastructure created decades ago can be seen to be deteriorating. In states like Nevada, where getting from place to place is very dependent on the use of private vehicles, car and truck crashes continue to be a significant cost to both individuals and the public at large, in Las Vegas and around the state.

How exactly do traffic accidents affect Nevada residents? First off, over 1,300 people were killed in accidents in the state from 2010 to 2014. This comes out to an average of over 260 people a year. In 2014, the state’s rate of motor vehicle fatalities was greater than the national average, with 1.15 people being killed for every 100 million vehicle miles traveled. In Las Vegas itself, almost 200 people per year lost their lives over the three-year period from 2010 to 2014. Apart from the loss of life, such accidents cost Nevada residents over $2.4 billion in 2014, including medical costs, property damage, legal and court costs and emergency services costs.

While the causes of these accidents are varied, some factors that may have been associated with such accidents are drivers’ behavior, vehicle characteristics and features of the roadways themselves. In fact, road features may have been factor in around 33 percent of all accidents.

As may be seen from the above numbers, accidents on Nevada roads are costly, both economically and in the wasted potential and emotional costs of lost lives. The state itself may be able to help ease some of these costs by investing in roadway improvements that reduce hazards and congestion that can cause accidents. However, when an individual has been hurt due to either someone else’s carelessness or the state’s failure to properly repair or reduce the effect of a hazard, future improvements do not help that person’s recovery. In such cases, car accident victims may be entitled to compensation from the parties who were at fault for the crash.