Looking at Ohio Traffic Accident Injury Numbers

The Ohio Department of Safety recently issued its annual report, Traffic Crash Facts. The report breaks down motor vehicle crashes in Summit County and across the state. It includes accidents resulting in injuries, property-damage-only and those crashes that result in fatalities.

Of the more than 280,000 traffic accidents in the state last year, nearly 70,000 resulted in injuries to at least one person. Sadly, 919 accidents resulted in fatal injuries, while 211,000 involved damage to property damage only.

Passenger vehicles — cars, pick-ups, SUVs, etc. — were most frequently involved: 454,527. But there were also a substantial number of medium- and heavy-weight trucks in crashes: 22,849. That’s more than 1,900 big trucks involved in accidents in our state every single month of 2014 and more than 60 every single day.

The state of Ohio reports that 275 people were injured in auto accidents every day last year and that 2.8 people died in crashes every day of 2014.

The injury and fatality numbers are both up very slightly over 2013, statistics show.

Statistics are typically not difficult to read. Little emotion is involved in figures and percentages. But when it is you or your loved one who is injured in a crash, everything changes, of course.

For many people injured in an Akron traffic accident, the damages involve not only the pain of the injury, but significant medical bills, lost wages, diminishment of future earning power and lengthy periods of recuperation and physical therapy. Most injury victims rightly feel that when the accident was caused by someone else’s reckless behavior, that person should be held financially responsible.

An Akron attorney experienced in personal injury litigation can evaluate your situation and your legal options and then help you pursue the course of action that suits you best.