According to How we Die, 35 percent of trauma in the United States is caused by automobiles and 7 percent by motorcycles. (10% of trauma is from gunshots and another 10% is from stabbings. Pedestrians suffer 7-8% of the major injuries, and 17% occurs as the result of falls. The other 15% is from industrial accidents, bike accidents, and suicide injuries.)

The cause of automobile accidents varies, of course, with everything from recklessness to fatigue being a factor. However, the single largest factor is alcohol, playing a role in about half of motor vehicle deaths in the United States.

Deaths from trauma are described as trimodal, that is they are either immediate, early or late. Half of all deaths occur immediately (within a few minutes) as a result of injury to a major blood vessel, the heart or the central nervous system (brain damage and bleeding are each responsible for a third of trauma deaths). Others occur within a few hours as a result of harm to the head, lung, or abdomen or bleeding wihin. Late death occurs days or weeks after the injury, often from complication of infection or lung, kidney or liver failure.

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