How affordable is it to repair a vehicle after an accident in your state?

You might think that the cost of repairing a wrecked vehicle would be roughly the same regardless of where you live. But as it turns out, that’s far from the truth.

A new study has found that there is a huge difference in the average cost of a car repair, with the cheapest and most expensive locations actually being about $1,500 apart.

The Dolman Law Group conducted a study to determine which states have the highest costs associated with car accidents. The firm collected data on licensed drivers, the number of fatal accidents, and the estimated economic costs for each state. The final ranking was created based on per capita costs.

The Ocean State is back in the thick of things

It seems no one can do a study on cars or driving without Rhode Island being included. In one ConsumerAffairs study, the state ranked lowest for bad roads. However, in another survey, it was ranked as the state with the fewest number of car accidents.

In Dolman Law’s data, Rhode Island hit another high, but it’s no better than the one about bad roads. The researchers found that the Ocean State has the highest repair costs for car accidents, at $1,987 per capita. The total cost to the state was over $2 billion.

“Only 68.8% of Rhode Island’s population has a driver’s license, a low percentage compared to other states in the rankings. As a result, the cost of car accidents is much higher, at over $2,700 per 100,000 drivers,” the researchers said, giving the state a reason to celebrate: Rhode Island has the lowest fatality rate in the rankings.

The top 10 are rounded off

Georgia ranks second in the cost of car accidents – $1,761 per repair. Connecticut follows closely behind at $1,712 per capita.

New Jersey ranks fourth with $1,577 in per capita costs from auto accidents. Delaware ranks fifth in the ranking of states with the highest costs from auto accidents with $1,518 per capita.

The complete list

Here is the Dolman researchers’ full list from worst to best, sorted by the cost of repairing a vehicle per capita:

Gary Guthriereporter

Gary’s primary topics for the ConsumerAffairs news team are travel and technology, including the hearing aid industry. (He himself has been a hearing aid wearer for over 15 years.) Prior to joining ConsumerAffairs, he was a program consultant for radio and television stations in approximately 20 markets across the U.S., and a presentation developer for companies such as Jack Daniel’s, Procter & Gamble, AT&T, and Columbia University.

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