WASHINGTON: Volkswagen's pollution-control chicanery hasn't just been victimless tinkering.

An Associated Press statistical and computer analysis shows that extra pollution kills between five and 20 people in the United States annually in recent years.

The AP analysis found the software that the company admitted using to evade government emissions limits allowed VWs to spew enough pollution to kill somewhere between 16 and 94 people over seven years — with the annual count increasing more recently as more of the diesels were on the road.

And the total cost has been well over $100 million.

That's just in the United States. Engineers say it's likely far deadlier in Europe, where more VW diesels were sold.

The AP ran its analysis by more than a dozen experts in emissions, engineering and public health.