Skip to main content

Counting the cost of road crashes

Annual research just released by the New Zealand Ministry of Transport estimates that the total social cost of fatal and injury crashes rose from US$2.5 billion (NZ$3.53 billion) in 2014 to US$2.6 billion (NZ$3.79 billion) in 2015. Over 300 New Zealanders lost their lives on the country’s roads last year, and about 2,500 were seriously injured. According to associate transport minister David Bennett, in 40 per cent of the crashes where people were killed or seriously injured, the driver had drunk more
April 10, 2017 Read time: 1 min
Annual research just released by the New Zealand Ministry of Transport estimates that the total social cost of fatal and injury crashes rose from US$2.5 billion (NZ$3.53 billion) in 2014 to US$2.6 billion (NZ$3.79 billion) in 2015.

Over 300 New Zealanders lost their lives on the country’s roads last year, and about 2,500 were seriously injured.

According to associate transport minister David Bennett, in 40 per cent of the crashes where people were killed or seriously injured, the driver had drunk more than the legal limit of alcohol, was driving too fast for the conditions, or people in the vehicles weren’t wearing a seatbelt.

The Government spends billions of dollars a year on physical infrastructure improvements such as median barriers, rumble strips and wide shoulders, as well as on road safety enforcement, advertising and education campaigns trying to encourage the sort of behavioural change required on our roads.
UTC

Related Content

  • August 24, 2016
    No sign of a decrease in motor fatalities says National Safety Council
    Preliminary estimates from the National Safety Council indicate that motor vehicle deaths in the US were nine per cent higher through the first six months of 2016 than in 2015, and 18 per cent higher than two years ago at the six month mark. An estimated 19,100 people have been killed on US roads since January and 2.2 million were seriously injured. The total estimated cost of these deaths and injuries is US$205 billion. The upward trend began in late 2014 and shows no signs of decreasing. Last winter, t
  • April 23, 2021
    US infrastructure: once in a lifetime
    Expectations are sky-high for Amtrak Joe and Mayor Pete as they use infrastructure spending to rebuild the US economy post-Covid – and ITS firms should be able to get a share...
  • February 25, 2015
    New legal basis brings EU wide cross border enforcement
    Pan-EU enforcement is set to become a reality after legislation is revised. In May 2014 the European Court of Justice ruled that European Directive 2011/82/EU, which came into force in November 2013 to facilitate the exchange of information between member states in relation to eight road traffic offences, had been set up on an incorrect legal basis. The regulations had been introduced under police cooperation rules on the prevention of crime, but the Court decided that the measures in the Directive do not c
  • November 22, 2022
    Make Thanksgiving roads safe: GHSA
    Grants given to four states to avoid holiday season road fatalities - with help from Lyft