Employers Pay $31 Billion Insurance Bill

5/10/2002

From: Kathryn Lusby-Treber of the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety, 202-452-6005

WASHINGTON, May 10 -- Highway crashes cost employers $31 billion in insurance costs annually, Dr. Ted Miller of the Calverton, Md., Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, said Friday.

Miller is one of the authors of a study indicating workers involved in motor vehicle crashes lose an estimated $61 billion in wages and fringe benefits annually. The study on the economic impact of motor vehicle crashes was released Thursday by the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Kathryn Lusby-Treber, executive director of the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS), said the data underscores the need for employers to actively safeguard their own employees against injuries from a traffic crash by promoting safe driving practices both on and off the job. "These costs are largely preventable," she said. According to the NHTSA study, safety belts prevented more than 135,000 fatalities and 3.8 million injuries during the last quarter century. That resulted in a savings of $585 billion. Failure to buckle up caused 315,000 unnecessary deaths and 5.2 million injuries, at a cost of $913 billion in preventable medical costs, lost productivity and other injury related expenditures.

NETS has coordinators in 25 states working to persuade employers to address traffic safety issues, such as the importance of seat belt use. For example, Michigan NETS Coordinator Dan Vartanian works with Charter Communications, a leading U.S. cable company, to improve safety belt use. Using NETS resources, the company recently increased belt use from 74.5 percent to 91.5 percent.

Lusby-Treber said research shows that focusing on workplace traffic safety improves a business's financial performance. "Liberty Mutual Group released a report last year that showed 61 percent of their companies believe that for every $1 they invest in improving workplace safety, they receive a return of $3 or more," she said. "There is no question that promoting traffic safety in the workplace is a win-win situation."

NETS is an employer-led, public/private partnership dedicated to improving the safety and health of employees, their families, and members of the communities in which they live and work, by reducing traffic crashes. NETS provides employers of all sizes with effective programs, policies, best practices, and employer-led activities related to traffic safety, thereby helping organizations to improve employee relations while reducing the cost of doing business. For more information, go to http://www.trafficsafety.org.