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How much does it cost to avoid or prevent a fatal road accident?

 

The General Traffic Council commissioned the University of Murcia and Sigma Dos to develop a study to estimate the values of fatality and injury prevention. The study uses the methodology of willingness to pay. This is the maximum amount of money that society is prepared to invest in order to increase road safety and thus prevent fatalities and serious or minor injuries in road accidents. This is based on the lottery/continental valuation approach. 2000 adults were surveyed, who are both demographically and geographically representative of the Spanish population, using computer-assisted face-to-face interviews.

Accidents on the road are always tragic. Regardless of whether they result in minor or serious injuries or even death. Accidents on the road are always tragic. Regardless of whether they result in minor or serious injuries or even death. High costs are still to be expected, even if it is always significantly more expensive if the injured person dies. The cost amounts to two million euros, considering that 1.9 million is the estimated value of a statistical life, a figure to which the cost of net production losses due to premature mortality and the cost of medical and emergency services have been added. Such a study was already conducted in 2011. Compared to this study, the statistical lifetime value is now 46 % higher. The statistical lifetime value refers to the monetary value of a reduction in the risk of death, e.g. to prevent a statistical death. The nominal GDP per capita is now also exceeded. The increase here is 24,5 %. This is said to be due to the fact that, with the rise in living standards, ‘it is possible that the preferences expressed by Spanish citizens reflect a growing concern for road safety’. The economic figures differentiate again in the case of non-fatal injuries between the seriously injured and the less seriously injured. If all components such as ambulance transport, etc. and the injury itself are taken into account, the value of serious injuries is around 355000 euros and the value of minor injuries is assumed to be around 9000 euros. This type of study is intended to help determine the average social costs of road accidents and to evaluate the road safety policies and measures to be implemented as part of a cost-benefit analysis, explains Gómez, Director of the DGT's Road Safety Observatory. For him, the focus is on the efficient allocation of public resources. This results in an investment with a high social and economic return.

Two different surveys were performed, one with regard to death prevention and one referred to injury prevention. The net loss of production capacity due to the premature death of the victim and the costs associated with medical care were added to the statistical value of life (VVE). For the value of injury prevention, the cost of healthcare was added to the value of the non-fatal victim and the productive losses. In addition, this second analysis included the estimation of the quality-adjusted monetary value of the year of life associated with road accidents. The quality-adjusted life year is an indicator that integrates quantitative and qualitative aspects of life.

In Málaga for example, insurers paid more than 27 million euros for the care of road accident victims.

Source: Pixabay/ madrid-327989_1280