Road crashes result in death, injury and property damage. For the individuals involved, the outcomes of a road crash may be devastating and it may not seem to them to be necessary or appropriate to place dollar values on these outcomes. However, to make decisions about crash prevention and risk-minimisation expenditure, it is necessary to have reasonably accurate estimates of the costs of road crashes. It is only through understanding the structure of the costs that a thorough evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of programs to reduce the incidence or severity of road crashes can be made. This information is important when scarce funds are to be allocated among programs designed to reduce the incidence of specific crash or injury types. Another use for estimates of road crash costs is to demonstrate the burden crashes place on the community as a whole and on particular groups within the community. For instance, the cost to the medical system, employers, or emergency services can be determined. The extent to which particular sectors can potentially benefit from actions to reduce road crashes can also be determined. Understanding the relative burden due to road crashes is useful in determining the demand for specific road safety actions and assessing the social returns from road safety expenditure. The costs imposed by road crashes, and the social benefits of avoiding crashes, are explicitly and implicitly recognised by the actions of government, industry, community groups and individuals. Governments at all levels promote road safety and this message is enforced through the police services. Motor vehicle manufacturers invest in developing safety equipment and structurally testing their vehicles, while motorists voluntarily purchase safety equipment, including air bags and child restraints and may make behavioural choices to reduce risk. These actions all contribute to the reduction of the risk of death and injury through road crashes. Despite the considerable expenditure on improving road safety, there is still substantial risk inherent in road transport. In 1996, 1970 people were killed, and at least 22 000 were admitted to hospital due to road crashes. These statistics must be placed in proper perspective. The number of fatalities in 1996 represents a 48 per cent reduction from the peak of 3798 fatalities in 1970. Australia is one of the safest countries in the world in which to drive. Australia currently has 9.3 road deaths per 100 000 persons, and its comparable rate at the time of the latest available international comparison (9.5 deaths per 100 000 persons in 1997) was well below the median value (11.7) deaths for OECD countries. Measuring deaths per 10 000 registered vehicles takes into account the level of motorisation of countries. Australia had 1.5 deaths per 10 000 registered vehicles in 1997, well below the OECD median of 2.0 deaths. Information allowing a comparison on the basis of distance travelled is not available. However, Australia had a lower death rate than other big countries such as Canada (1.7 deaths per 10 000 registered vehicles) and the USA (2.1). This report builds on, and refines, previous work. This report comprises six chapters. Chapter 2 presents the basic statistics on numbers of crashes, vehicles involved and casualties. Chapter 3 sets out the method used to calculate the cost of road crashes, followed by an analysis of the human costs of crashes in chapter 4. Chapters 5 and 6 provide details of the vehicle-related and general crash costs, respectively. Chapter 7 brings these three broad cost elements together to provide estimates of the total cost of road crashes in 1996 and the costs associated with each injury level. Several issues arising from the costing are also examined in chapter 7. Appendix I defines many of the terms used in the report, while appendix II explains the mathematical basis of the model used to estimate traffic delay costs in chapter 6. (Author/publisher)
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