Road accidents have been costed since 1968 using a method devised by Dawson, RFF, at the Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL), given in Laboratory Report LR79, but modified in 1988 for fatal casualties. Dawson's formulation included an element of cost, termed "pain, grief and suffering" (PGS), equivalent to an average social security payment made to non-productive persons. Further revisions of PGS were seen as interim measures pending a comprehensive review. Following a recommendation from the Standing Committee on Trunk Road Assessment (SACTRA) that the Department of Transport should move to a Willingness to Pay (WTP) method of valuation for road accident casualties, in 1982, Professor Michael Jones-Lee was commissioned to carry out a survey to establish a WTP valuation for fatal casualties, and a review of research was carried out by Dalvi, MQ in 1988. The value now is 700,000 pounds. Non fatal casualties continued to be valued using Dawsons method, and in the case of serious injuries contain an arbitrary PGS element amounting to 75% of the total. New research was commissioned and reported at a seminar in October 1989. Two possible approaches were recommended: a contingent valuation approach developed by York and Newcastle Universities; and a relative utility loss approach developed by the University of East Anglia. The Department of Transport is now considering the results of the two research projects.
Samenvatting