The cost of road accidents

The NHS spends an estimated £131 million per year on emergency hospital admissions because of childhood accidents. Just a small amount of money invested in injury prevention can save many times that amount further down the line.

The DfT estimates that the value of preventing the accidents that happened on the roads in 2009 would be around £15.8 billion. This includes all accidents – there are no breakdowns for child accidents only, as many accidents involve numerous casualties from across all age groups.

The DfT estimates that the average cost per seriously injured casualty on the roads is £178,160, and that that the average cost per fatality on the roads is £1,585,510.

The valuations provided by the DfT encompass all aspects of the valuation of casualties, taking into account:

• The human costs including pain, suffering and grief. This is calculated on a ‘willingness to pay’ approach i.e. how much people would be willing to pay to avoid grief, pain and suffering.
• The direct economic costs of lost output. This is most relevant for adult accidents if the injury requires short-term recuperation. For children, however, this becomes substantial if they suffer injuries that cause them lifelong problems, such as a severe head injury.
• The medical costs associated with road accident injuries. This includes the cost of treatment, hospital staff time, ambulance costs, etc. See ‘the cost of burns’ and ‘the cost of a hot drink scald’ for more detailed breakdowns of these costs.