Helping States Prioritize Motor Vehicle Injury Prevention Strategies

In the United States, motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death. CDC developed the Motor Vehicle Prioritizing Interventions and Cost Calculator for States (MV PICCS) to help states prioritize motor vehicle injury prevention strategies to save lives and money.

In 2016, there were 37,461 crash deaths in the United States and more than 2 million injuries. These injuries and deaths have a high economic impact, in addition to the immeasurable burden on the victims’ families and communities. Many evidence-based strategies can significantly reduce the number of injuries and deaths from motor vehicle crashes and their related costs. States play a critical role in prevention.

Helping States with Informed Decision-Making

More than 100 people die each day in motor vehicle crashes and thousands more are injured. We can do more to prevent crashes and to reduce injuries. State-level changes are especially effective. However, not all states have the same motor vehicle injury prevention needs. CDC’s MV PICCS is a free interactive calculator that helps state decision makers prioritize and select from a suite of 14 effective motor vehicle injury prevention strategies, based on a user defined budget. MV PICCS calculates the expected number and monetized value of injuries prevented, lives saved, and cost of implementing the selected interventions.

CDC’s MV PICCS is a free interactive calculator that helps state’s prioritize and select effective motor vehicle injury prevention interventions.

How Can MV PICCS Help?

States can use MV PICCS to review the costs and effectiveness of different statewide actions designed to prevent motor vehicle crash-related injuries and deaths. Users select a state, enter a budget, and MV PICCS finds the most cost-effective combination of strategies for the selected budget. Some of the strategies in the tool include, alcohol ignition interlocks, universal motorcycle helmet laws, sobriety checkpoints, and primary seat belt-use laws.

CDC recently released MV PICCS 3.0, an updated and more user-friendly version of the tool. Features of the update include: