This is an annual update of the Social Cost of Road Crashes and Injuries published by the Ministry of Transport.
This update provides estimates of the average social costs per injury and per crash, after accounting for inflationary effects. It also accounts for any changes in the mix of crashes by area and severity, and the average number of injuries received in a crash.
Average social cost per injury and per crash
The updated value of statistical life is $4.06 million per fatality, at June 2015 prices. Adding the other social cost components gives an updated average social cost per fatality of $4,094,500. For non-fatal injuries, the updated average social cost is estimated at $430,400 per serious injury and $23,000 per minor injury. These estimates do not include an adjustment for cases that do not have a traffic crash report (ie those recorded in hospitals and/or Accident Compensation Corporation’s (ACC) databases only).
Apart from fatalities, not all serious and minor injuries are reported to NZ Police. A simple way to incorporate the costs associated with non-reported cases is to scale up the average social cost estimates to include the share of costs attributable to non-reported cases. With such an adjustment, the social cost estimates increase to $760,000 per reported serious injury and $75,000 per reported minor injury.
In per-crash terms, the updated average social cost is estimated at $4,709,000 per fatal crash, $498,200 per serious crash, $28,100 per minor crash (or $900,000 per reported serious crash and $95,000 per reported minor crash, after considering reporting rate adjustment). Because each crash can result in multiple injuries of various injury severities, the average social cost per crash is higher than the average social cost per injury in all cases.
Total social cost of road injury crashes in 2014
The total social cost of motor vehicle injury crashes in 2014 is estimated at approximately $3.47 billion, at June 2015 prices. Loss of life and/or life quality due to permanent impairments accounted for approximately 91 percent of the total social cost of injury crashes. Vehicle damage accounted for around five percent, and other cost components made up the remaining four percent.
In addition, there are an estimated 197,640 non-injury crashes, valued at a further $0.6 billion. The total social cost of all motor vehicle crashes is estimated at $4.06 billion. This estimate covers all injuries recorded by NZ Police, hospitals and ACC.
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Social cost of road crashes and injuries 2015 updateSocial cost of road crashes and injuries 2015 update