Personal Injury Statistics & Facts: 2021 Edition

Personal injury statistics and facts are essential to know for anyone who wants to work in the personal injury field. Suppose you're considering a career as an attorney, a paralegal, or another professional related to personal injuries. In that case, this post will teach you everything you need to know about these statistics and facts.

Many different types of personal injuries happen every day—either at home or on the job site—and knowing how often they occur is essential when it comes time for court cases. It's also necessary information if you want to be prepared for working with clients who have been injured!

Personal injury statistics reveal essential information about the frequency of different types of injuries. They can also be used to illustrate how personal injury cases are changing—for better or for worse! Here, we'll review some important stats and facts that every personal injury professional should know.

Personal Injury - What Is It?

Personal injury is any type of damage that occurs to the body. This can be in the form of physical, emotional, or mental abuse/trauma as well. Personal injuries are usually not intentional—they happen when a person has been hurt by accident or suffered from medical malpractice.

Types of Personal Injury Statistics

There are many different types of statistics and facts about personal injury cases (such as car accidents). There's no statistical information available for every single scenario because there are many variables involved with each case!

However, some important numbers to know include: how often these incidents occur per year, what industries they're most prevalent in, who's at risk for suffering from them, and their likelihood depending on age groups.

Most Common Personal Injury - Motor Vehicle Accident Statistics

Approximately, there are about 19 million motor vehicle accidents per year. These personal injury cases are the most common types of personal injury cases. That would be an average of one car accident every 13 seconds!

Most motor vehicle accidents are caused by distracted driving. The most common causes of distraction while operating a vehicle are:

• Cell phone use.
• Eating or drinking while driving.
• Reaching for an item that's in the backseat.

Injuries can be caused by anything from car occupants being struck by other vehicles to pedestrians hit during a traffic accident.

Motorcycle accidents make up about 13% of all personal injury cases each year, but they're responsible for more than 30% of fatalities! They account for only one-third as many injuries as cars do (about 140,000 per year).

Despite their infrequent frequency in crashes with automobiles, motorcycle riders have higher risk factors depending on age groups. Younger drivers will usually suffer head trauma because motorcycles haven't been designed to "protect" the rider's head struck by another vehicle.

The most common injuries are sprains and strains, which account for more than 48% of all accidents in America. Meanwhile, fractures make up 16%. Lacerations cause about 12%, concussions nearly 13%, and contusions 14%. Other types of personal injury can include a broken nose or jawbone (which occurs if the car hits its brakes too hard), whiplash, burns from an engine fire or hot liquids on your skin while driving, etc.

Motor Vehicle Accidents are Common for Certain Industries - Trucking, Taxi & Delivery Workers

Truck drivers have the highest rates of getting into an accident compared to other professions. Commercial truck drivers account for about 19% of accidents, and this accounts for more than 400 fatalities annually. These accidents happen at a rate of one per 350 miles driven by commercial trucks (and these numbers increased from 2005).

Taxi or delivery workers also have a higher probability of being in an incident because they're on the road so much more often, even if their cars aren't that big. They take around 91 million trips each day, and it's estimated that only 20% use seat belts while driving, which increases the chances of someone being injured.

Industries With the Most Personal Injury Cases - Construction, Manufacturing

Construction and manufacturing industries experience more personal injury cases than any other industry because they involve heavy machinery and dangerous materials.

Personal Injuries by Age Group Statistics for 2020

The most common age groups at risk for suffering from these incidents are children aged 14-17 years old (they're around 69% likely to suffer from an incident), adults 40-44 with a 56% likelihood; then individuals between ages 25-29 have the lowest chance at 12%. The likelihood continues to decrease as you get older until it's less than one percent when people reach 75+ years old.

Slip and Fall Personal Injury Cases and Statistics

Slip and fall cases are the most common types of personal injury incidents. They happen when someone falls on a slippery surface, but they can also happen with other substances like ice or heat. The vast majority is caused by negligence (someone failing to maintain their floor), not deliberate action from people walking around carelessly.

People visit emergency rooms over 1 million times due to slip and fall accidents. That number has been going up steadily since the 2000s when it was at just over 500,000.

In 2017, about 13% of all injury-related visits to an emergency room were due to slip and fall accidents in public places.

Slip and Fall Statistics by Gender 

Men are more likely than women (65% versus 30%) with a higher chance of serious injuries like head trauma or broken bones; men also have a much higher probability of dying from this type of accident than women do at 26%.

If you have suffered a personal injury, contact Glotzer & Leib personal injury attorneys for legal assistance.