Who bears the road crash costs?

Answer

The brunt of the road crash costs, 90% (€ 24 billion), are borne by private individuals, see Figure 3. This is mainly caused by human costs accounting for such a large share of the total costs (see the question What type of road crash costs do we distinguish?),The human costs are borne by road casualties and their loved ones. In addition, part of the vehicle damage and medical costs are borne by the road casualties. People not involved in a road crash also bear part of the costs, such as congestion costs and insured costs. The latter are indirectly paid by means of insurance premiums by all insured individuals. Companies bear approximately 5% of the road crash costs (€ 1.3 billion), among which damage to company vehicles, insurance costs and congestion costs. A relatively small share of the costs, an estimated 1% ( (€ 350 million), is borne by the government. They concern the medical costs that are not paid by insurers and settlement costs (police, fire brigade and legal costs). The distribution of 4% of the costs, particularly production loss costs, is unknown.

Disregarding human costs, a picture emerges of a distribution of costs that are mainly financial (Figure 4). Private individuals once again bear the brunt (58%) of the costs, such as vehicle damage and insurance costs. The cost share for companies is 20% and 5% is borne by the government.

Afbeelding

Figure 3. Distribution of road crash costs among the cost bearing parties [1].

Afbeelding

Figure 4. Distribution of road crash costs among cost bearing parties, excluding human costs. Source [1], edited by SWOV.

The 2009 distribution of costs among the cost bearing parties was studied on the basis of data such as those on financial flows (for example in health care) [6]. For the 2020 cost distribution, the same distribution among private individuals, companies and government was used per cost item. The increase in human costs particularly increased the share of private individuals compared to 2009.

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Part of fact sheet

Road crash costs

The social costs of road crashes in the Netherlands in 2020 are estimated at € 27 billion (between € 15 and € 36 billion). This is significantly Meer

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