Abstract
In 1987, 2767 people were killed and more than 200,000 were injured on Australia's roads, each year road crashes cost the Australian community about 5.7 billion. This publication briefly identifies the three categories into which the cost of road crashes may be divided as: (1) crash-generated activites which account for 50 per cent of the total road crashes or $2.81 billion; (2) loss of victim which accounts for 30 per cent of the total cost of crashes; and (3) pain and suffering which accounts for 20 per cent of the cost. Simple guidelines are given for ways of reducing the number and severity of road crashes.