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

  • July 4, 2017
    New South Wales study indicates lower speed zones reduce deaths
    A new study into 40km/h speed zones in New South Wales, Australia indicates they are reducing deaths and injuries in high pedestrian and traffic areas.
    Read More
  • October 3, 2014
    New South Wales removes speed cameras
    New South Wales Minister for Roads and Freight, Duncan Gay, has announced that speed cameras in ten locations across NSW are to be removed as soon as any safety works such as additional signage, barriers and markings and that work has been finished. Gay said in a statement that the government is keeping to a statement that it made while in opposition, and removing any speed cameras that did not add a proven safety benefit. The 2014 Speed Camera Review of the state’s cameras indicates that early result
    Read More
  • July 12, 2012
    Deaths up and road safety spending down in England
    Fifty local councils in England saw more than a ten per cent increase in killed and seriously injured (KSI) crash rates between 2010 and 2011, according to an Institute for Advanced Motorists (IAM) analysis of the new road accident figures. The biggest increases in KSI numbers were in St Helens – 62 per cent, Portsmouth – 57 per cent, Stoke on Trent – 57 per cent, and Coventry – 51 per cent. A further 76 councils saw increases in the KSI rate above the national average of two per cent.
    Read More
  • July 21, 2014
    EU urged to fast-track revised cross-border enforcement law
    TISPOL and its road safety partners across Europe are urging the EU to fast-track the adoption of a modified law on cross-border enforcement of traffic offences such as speeding. The modified rules, published by the European Commission, come in response to a European Court of Justice ruling in May that said the existing law, which came into force in November last year, had been adopted on an incorrect legal basis. The ECJ has said the current rules could remain in effect until May 2015 while new legisla
    Read More

Highlighted Content