Average US$3.75mn ‘social cost’ of each New Zealand road death

The average social cost of each New Zealand road accident death is $3.75 million (NZD 4.54 million), according to an estimation by the New Zealand ministry of transport (MOT) The New Zealand MOT also estimates that the average cost of serious injuries due to road accidents is $392,989 (NZD 473,600) per person. The social costs include financial and non-financial costs of accidents such as property damage, medical and legal expenses as well as loss of quality of life. The number of road accidents in New Ze
January 16, 2014 Read time: 1 min
The average social cost of each New Zealand road accident death is US$3.75 million (NZD 4.54 million), according to an estimation by the New Zealand ministry of transport (MOT).

The New Zealand MOT also estimates that the average cost of serious injuries due to road accidents is $392,989 (NZD 473,600) per person. The social costs include financial and non-financial costs of accidents such as property damage, medical and legal expenses as well as loss of quality of life.

The number of road accidents in New Zealand has declined from 308 in 2012 to 254 in 2013. It is estimated that one person died every 28 hours in a New Zealand road accident in 2012, with total social costs of road accidents during that year reaching $3.18 billion (NZD 3.84 billion).
Highway & Network Management

Related Content

  • India road safety issue for young males
    September 7, 2015
    An estimated 75,000 people aged 15-34 were killed in road crashes in India during 2014. This accounted for 53.8% of India’s total road crash fatalities for 2014, around 129,300 in all. The data comes from India’s 2014 Road Accident Report by the Road Transport and Highways Ministry. The report also revealed that 84% of those 75,000 killed were males. The data is in line with World Health Organisation's report that road crashes are the number one cause of death among people aged 15-29 globally. The 2014 Road
    Read More
  • Road safety improvement for Germany
    February 28, 2013
    Preliminary data from the German Federal Statistics Office, Destatis, shows a drop in road fatalities during 2012 compared with the previous year. According to the statistics, there was a 10.1% drop in road related deaths in 2012 compared to 2011. In 2012, 3,606 people were killed on Germany’s roads. In addition the number of injuries from road crashes also dropped by 2.1% in 2012 compared to 2011, falling to some 384,100. But the overall number of accidents registered by German police rose by 0.6% to aroun
    Read More
  • New Zealand is bucking the trend in road safety with increasing crashes
    June 4, 2015
    New Zealand is bucking the trend worldwide on improving road safety with an increase in crashes on its roads. The country saw 5.7 road deaths/100,000 people in 2014 according to the International Road Traffic and Accident Database, an increase of 16.1% from the previous year. This is the largest increase in the 28 countries surveyed, and largely reverses a 17% reduction from the previous year. The death toll on New Zealand’s roads so far in 2015 is 134, compared to 123 and 100 in the comparable periods of 2
    Read More
  • Drink driving an issue for Taiwan
    March 22, 2012
    Official statistics from Taiwan's Ministry of Interior show that in the first 11 months of 2011, there was a 3.28% increase in the number of road accidents that resulted in injuries or deaths, compared with the same period in the previous year. The number of traffic accidents that resulted in deaths at the scene of the accident or within a 24 hour period climbed 3.47% to 1,847 compared with the previous year.
    Read More

Highlighted Content