Valuation of road accidents

Since 1988, the Department of Transport has used a Willingness to Pay approach to value road accident fatalities by considering what people would be willing to pay to reduce the risk of being killed in a road accident. The value of non-fatal accidents was revised in 1994, so that non-fatal accidents are now estimated in a comparable way to fatal accidents and the values are based on up-to-date information about the consequences of road accidents. The report sets out the values and provides a brief summary of the results of research on each component of the costs; the lost contribution to the economy which results from road accident injuries, medical and support costs associated with casualties, the human costs which reflect people's pain, grief and suffering and the costs of property damage, police time and insurance administration.