The Social Cost of Road Crashes and Injuries June 2007 (PDF, 384kb) update provides estimates of average social costs per injury and per crash, at June 2007 prices. It also provides estimates of the total social cost of road crashes and injuries that have occurred in New Zealand since 1997.
The social costs of a road crash and the associated injuries include a number of different elements:
Injury costs are classified into fatal, serious and minor injuries as reported by crash investigators.
The average value of a loss of life is estimated by the amount of money that the members of the New Zealand population would be willing to pay for a safety improvement that results in the expected avoidance of one premature death1. It is a measure of the pain, suffering and loss of life component of the social cost.
The value of statistical life (VOSL) was established at $2 million in 1991, following a willingness to pay (WTP) survey carried out during 1989/1990. It is indexed to average hourly earnings (ordinary time) to express the value in current prices. The same VOSL has been used in all safety evaluations across all three transport modes (road, maritime and aviation), as decided by the Government in 1991 (NZ Gazette notice 4983).
Medical costs can be further broken down into emergency costs, medical/hospital treatment costs and follow-on costs. Legal costs include crash investigation, imprisonment and court costs.
The social cost of road crashes and injuries is updated annually. Please contact Email for copies of earlier reports.
1This is the willingness to pay based value of statistical life.