The value of human life is determined differently depending who the courts are dealing with. Looking through recent settlements of deaths due to someone else’s neglect, the courts take the current earning power of the victim and multiply by the number of working years lefts. So, a person 30 years old making 70,000 per year would get at least 30x70,000=$2,100,000 awarded to the widow. There might be other expenses involved such as repatriating the body to the main residence and funeral costs. Actual settlements are often less, however. I doubt if the US military works that way; being a soldier is inherently dangerous and your widow won’t collect anything like a civil cash settlement.
The problem with this is that only a well heeled or well insured company, organization, or person could afford to pay up. My policy has $1,000,000 3rd party liability.
In the case of car insurance, most drivers get a policy that pays enough to not cause hardship to the widow in the short term. Otherwise the policy would be too expensive. Remember, there might be up to 7 people in the vehicle who all would be insured.
During the Bhopal, India disaster with Union carbide, the Indian government wanted the case tried in a USA court, since human life in India was worth only about $1000 at that time. A US settlement would have Union Carbide pay a whole lot more. All the same, it put Union carbide out of business as an independent company.
With respect to traffic deaths, as per the post, we are seeing a continuous drop in fatalities per million miles driven, and since 1954 they have dropped by a factor of 16! Safety gear, better roads, sturdier cars, better lighting all have contributed. Driving skill have remained at the same dismal level.
The type of calculations presented in the post are wishful hogwash; speed limits have very little effect on fatality rates. The temporary drop in the rate with 55 mph were a combination of drivers trying to conserve gas by driving slower and more carefully and avoiding unnecessary trips. The long term trend, as shown, is downward.
Germany still has the world’s highest speed limits and their highway fatality rate is one half that of the US. Better driving skills are mostly responsible and ridgid car inspections as well.