Motor vehicle crashes in 2012 sent more than 2.5 million people to emergency departments (EDs) and nearly 200 000 of those patients, approximately 7.5%, were admitted.
For every person killed in a motor vehicle crash, 8 were hospitalized and 100 were treated and released from the ED. Teens and young adults aged 15 to 29 years accounted for 38% of the medical costs attributed to crashes, while a third of adults aged 80 years or older were hospitalized for a crash injury (Bergen G et al. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2014;63[40]:894-900).