The cost of vehicle crashes in the D.C. region tops $5 billion a year and significantly outpaces the price tag of congestion, but elected leaders have refused to commit sufficient resources to road safety, AAA claims in a new report.

Across the country, the cost of car crashes totals $164.2 billion a year, 2.5 times the $67.6 billion cost of congestion, according to the AAA study, prepared by Bethesda-based Cambridge Systematics Inc.

The D.C. area, including the Northern Virginia and Maryland suburbs, lost $5.1 billion to crashes in 2005 — seventh most in the nation — compared with a $2.3 billion loss to congestion.

But it’s congestion that seizes the attention, the study states. Crashes occur randomly and “usually affect only a few people each time,” so safety is likely to receive less focus “except for temporary interest following highly publicized crashes” or in the midst of high-visibility enforcement campaigns.

This story continues below
Advertisement

AAA calculated the cost of crashes by totaling 11 factors, including property damage, lost earnings, lost household production, medical costs, emergency services, travel delay, vocation rehabilitation, workplace costs and lost quality of life.

Roughly 43,000 people die annually on U.S. highways, and about 500 people were killed on Washington-area roads in 2005. AAA President Robert Darbelnet on Wednesday accused elected leaders of complacency on focusing so much attention on solving congestion that safety through engineering, education and enforcement gets pushed aside.

“We need to realize that this carnage on our highways is a public health issue and deserves a higher priority at all levels of government,” Darbelnet said.

Replied Joan Morris, Virginia Department of Transportation spokeswoman: “That’s ridiculous. As a matter of fact [AAA is] a partner with us in our National Safety Challenge.”

About half of all congestion is due to “incidents,” said Ronald Kirby, director of transportation planning for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. Montgomery County Del. William Bronrott, acknowledged that safety might be a top priority, “but that goal has not been reflected in what we have done collectively as a nation.”

“It behooves all of us to do a lot more to put into place the kinds of laws and enforcement and education strategy that will dramatically reduce this death and injury toll,” Bronrott said.

mneibauer@dcexaminer.com