The social costs of road crashes in the Netherlands in 2020 are estimated at € 27 billion (between € 15 and € 36 billion), equivalent to 3% (1.9-4.5%) of the gross domestic product (GDP). This is significantly higher than other traffic-related social costs such as traffic congestion (€ 3.5 to € 4.6 billion) and environmental damage (€ 7.3 billion). The costs amount to about € 6.5 million per road death and € 0.7 million per serious road injury. Half the costs are attributable to serious road injuries, while the share attributable to road deaths is smaller (15%). The other costs (about one third of them) are the result of road crashes with less serious outcomes. The costs exceed those of previous estimates and their bandwidth has increased, mainly because new research shows that the human costs are considerably higher than was assumed.
About three quarters of the total costs are human costs, while the damage to vehicles is the second highest cost item (14% of the total costs). Other cost items are medical costs, loss of production, settlement costs and congestion costs.
In the Netherlands, the costs of road crashes are higher than in most other European countries. In Europe, the costs range from 0.4% to 4.1% of the GDP. The differences are mainly caused by differences in cost valuation methods. Information about the costs of road crashes is used in, for example, the preparation and evaluation of road safety policy and in cost-benefit analyses of road safety measures.
Read the full article here:
https://swov.nl/en/fact-sheet/road-crash-costs
