To determine the approximate economic cost of crashes in the United States in 2010, we need to analyze the given options and identify which one most closely represents the true cost:
### Options to Consider:
- a) [tex]$42 million: This translates to $[/tex]42,000,000. While significant, this amount is relatively small in comparison to large-scale national costs.
- b) [tex]$5 billion: This translates to $[/tex]5,000,000,000. This is a larger sum and significant when considering national statistics.
- c) [tex]$242 billion: This translates to $[/tex]242,000,000,000. This is an extremely large amount and might be closer to the economic impacts of crashes on a national level.
- d) [tex]$22 billion: This translates to $[/tex]22,000,000,000. This amount is also substantial but might be lower than the actual costs when entire national economic impacts are considered.
### Analysis:
- [tex]$42 million (Option a): This amount is relatively low and might cover costs for smaller regions or specific types of crashes but is unlikely to cover the national scope of economic costs.
- $[/tex]5 billion (Option b): [tex]$5 billion is certainly a large number, but when we consider the full economic consequences including healthcare, property damage, lost productivity, and more, we might expect higher figures.
- $[/tex]242 billion (Option c): [tex]$242 billion is a considerably large amount and is more in line with extensive nationwide costs involving various sectors, including medical costs, emergency services, lost productivity, property damages, and insurance costs.
- $[/tex]22 billion (Option d): [tex]$22 billion is substantial, but again it seems somewhat lower than what might be anticipated for all-inclusive national economic impacts.
### Conclusion:
Given the analysis above and considering typically high national economic costs of crashes, the figure that stands out as the most believable is $[/tex]242 billion. Therefore, the approximate economic cost of crashes in the United States in 2010 was:
- c) $242 billion
