Emergency Vehicle Accident Statistics

Seeing emergency vehicles such as ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars speeding down California roadways is an all too common sight for motorists. These emergency vehicles, while intended to save lives and rescue people who have been involved in accidents are involved in more accidents themselves than you probably realize.

Emergency responders have a rate of fatalities from collisions of almost 5 times the national average for non-emergency response vehicles. These vehicles need to travel at accelerated rates of speed in order to reach the accident in a timely manner. People’s lives very often depend on the vehicle’s response time. Sadly, 2015 saw the largest jump in emergency vehicle fatalities since back in 1966. Here is a look at some of the statistics that demonstrate just how dangerous driving an emergency vehicle can be.

Ambulance Collision Statistics

• An estimated 6,500 accidents each year involve on-duty ambulances
• 35% of ambulance accidents result in a fatality or an injury
• An accident involving an ambulance that results in an average of three separate injuries to those involved
• When an ambulance accident results in a death, there is more than one fatality in 25% of the cases
• 1,500 ambulance accidents will result in approximately 600 persons injured
• 21% of people killed in an ambulance accident were passengers an ambulance, 4% were ambulance drivers, 63% were in a passenger vehicle, and 12% were non-occupants
• Approximately 60% of all ambulance collisions occur during emergency use
• Compared to other first responders, emergency medical workers have a greater chance of crashing
• 58.8% of all ambulance collision fatalities occur in the patient area as opposed to the driver’s area
• 43% of all ambulance accidents take place at intersections

Fire Truck Collision Statistics

• The second most common reason for on-the-job deaths of firefighters is fire truck collisions
• Approximately 31,600 collisions including fire vehicles took place from the years 2000 through 2009.
• Of those 31,600 collisions, 49 resulted in no less than one death to a person on board the fire truck
• About 70% of all fire truck collisions take place while being used for emergencies
• 66% of all fatal firetruck collisions involve a truck rollover

Police Car Collision Statistics

• High-speed police chases result in about 300 fatalities every year in the United States
• 30% of those fatalities were people who were in no way involved in the police chase
• Police officers nearly double the rate of car accidents per million cars driven over non-police cars
• Between 1998 and 2008, half of all police officer deaths were the result of police car collisions

In 2011, the Los Angeles Police Department paid out a grand total of $24,000,000 for settlements for collisions that involved their police cars. An estimated $35 billion annually is spent on accidents that involve an emergency vehicle of some sort. If you have suffered an injury after being involved in an accident with an emergency vehicle, it is in your best interest to contact a personal injury attorney right away. This way you can begin building a claim. Here at the Los Angeles Injury Group we have the resources and the experience to get you the maximum amount of financial compensation you are entitled to under California state law. We are ready to help you build your legal claim from the ground up. For a free consultation with one of our personal injury attorneys, call us at (310) 954-7248 today.