Drop in car crashes in California has saved taxpayers $1 billion

[riversedge]

I imagine every has a story to tell about

deserted roads.

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Drop in car crashes in California has saved taxpayers $1 billion



https://nypost.com/2020/04/20/drop-in-car-crashes-in-california-has-saved-taxpayers-1-billion/

By David Aaro, Fox News

April 20, 2020 | 11:11am

A general view of freeways leading into downtown Los Angeles after California issued their stay-at-home order. Reuters

Car crashes in California were reduced by more than half following the state’s “shelter in place” order to limit the coronavirus spread and the fewer crashes saved taxpayers an estimated $1 billion during the time period, according to a survey last Wednesday.

The UC Davis survey concluded the lack of crashes was a result of “statistically significant” changes in traffic volume.

Traffic volume in certain highways was down by 55 percent when compared to data from last year, resulting in a lack of crashes and a potential savings of $40 million each day to the public.

“The savings was about $40 million a day … That’s about $15 billion over a one-year period, which is almost the size of the state portion of California’s transportation budget for a year,” Fraser Shilling, co-director of the Road Ecology Center at UC Davis, told the Los Angeles Times.

The survey looked at data from California Highway Patrol incident reports and the savings were calculated by using similar data from the Federal Highway Administration, according to the paper. The costs included property damage, treatment of injuries, lost time at work, emergency responses, insurance claims and the equivalent cost of a life, the survey said............................

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[dalton99a]

1. A windfall for insurance companies

[customerserviceguy]

2. Yes, I was wondering

How is this saving taxpayers? Is there some government expenditure related to auto accidents that is not being paid out because of the low traffic? I would imagine that with fewer drivers, highway patrol officers would be raising less in ticket revenues.

[stopbush]

5. Allstate gave us a 2-month rebate of 15% to reflect the drop in costs from less driving

and fewer accidents. I imagine that will continue if we continue to stay home.

[Baclava]

3. Keep it up, my car insurance company is giving me a 15-20% payback in reduced rates

[DBoon]

4. We are getting a 20% refund for the months of lockdown

nt