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 8, 2016
    US traffic deaths up 7.7 per cent in 2015
    Preliminary data released by the US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) show a 7.7 per cent increase in motor vehicle traffic deaths in 2015. An estimated 35,200 people died in 2015, up from the 32,675 reported fatalities in 2014. Although the data are preliminary and requires additional analysis, the early NHTSA estimate shows 9 out of 10 regions within the United States had increased traffic deaths in 2015. The most significant increases came for pedest
    Read More
  • July 16, 2012
    The cost benefits of LED traffic signals
    On 11 January 2005, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) began installing GELcore LED traffic signal modules state-wide through an Energy Savings Performance Contract. In tendering for the work, the energy service contractors could choose any manufacturers equipment but all of them proposed to use the GELcore brand.
    Read More
  • January 23, 2012
    Changing driving conditions need ongoing driver training
    Trevor Ellis, chairman of the ITS UK Enforcement Interest Group, considers the role of ongoing driver training in increasing compliance. It is over 30 years since I passed my driving test. The world was quite a different place then, in that there were only half the vehicles there are now on the UK's roads, mobile phones did not really exist and (in the UK at least) the vast majority of us drove cars which by today's standards exhibited dreadful dynamic stability and were woefully underpowered.
    Read More
  • April 24, 2013
    Slow development of Europe's road user charging
    Delegates convened in Brussels for Europe’s 10th annual Road User Charging Conference in March, when both positive and negative developments came to light for advocates of more widespread introduction of RUC. Jon Masters reports. Goings on across Europe in recent months have again demonstrated how very sensitive road user charging (RUC) is politically. At the 10th annual Road User Charging Conference in Brussels at the beginning of March, a Danish delegation was notable for its absence, but Belgian governme
    Read More

Highlighted Content