When victims die more than 30 days after a crash, they don’t count

When victims die more than 30 days after a crash, they don’t count 
StreetsBlogUSA; by Kea Wilson; 6/24/24
... Since it first launched in 1975, the federal Fatality Analysis and Reporting System database has excluded all car crash deaths that occur more than 30 days after the initial collision. That means people like [9-year-old] Ben — who lived with a traumatic brain injury, a severed spinal cord, an inability to speak, and other major disabilities for five years before he died — aren't included in official annual death totals. Survivors say those stats also don't capture the sheer scale of the grief, horror, and hardship suffered by victims and their families, whether they succumb to their injuries immediately or manage to hang on.