A study published in the October issue ofInjury Preventionfound that drivers and passengers involved in motor vehicle crashes in the U.S. lost 60.8 million days of work between 1993 and 2001. The study showed that more than 30 percent of drivers and passengers involved in a crash lost at least one day of work. Data revealed that work time lost after a crash averaged 28 days.

There was a strong correlation between people wearing seatbelts and losing less work time to accidents — people who were wearing seatbelts lost an average of ten work days, while that number jumped to 96 work days for people who were not wearing seatbelts.

What can an employer do? To some extent there will be an inevitable number of off-duty employee accidents, according to Circadian Technologies. However, training employees to better manage fatigue and health issues will inevitably lead to a reduction in accidents, both on- and off-duty, while at the same time lowering healthcare, turnover and presenteeism costs, according to Circadian.