Every year, the Federal Highway Research Institute determines the costs resulting from road traffic accidents in Germany. The economic costs caused by personal injury and damage to property due to road traffic accidents amount to over 30 billion Euros. This corresponds to almost two percent of the German Gross Domestic Product.
Photo: German Traffic Safety Association e.V., Bonn
As part of the further development of the accident cost bill, which took place in 1995, "humanitarian costs", "extra-market costs" and other costs positions were added to the "reproduction costs" and "loss-of-resource costs" positions.
Reproduction costs are expended in medical, legal, administrative and other measures for the purpose of establishing a comparable situation to before the accident. Loss-of-resource costs comprise the reduction in economic value creation. They arise from the fact that accident victims and material goods (e.g. vehicles) are no longer able to take part in the production process – either on a temporary or permanent basis. This reduces the social product.
Road traffic accidents also result in losses outside the market-based value creation. The losses caused to value creation in housework and the informal economy are not reflected in the official social product statistics.
Humanitarian costs are the consequences of personal injury, which indirectly lead to loss of resources. An accident may, for example, result in mental impairment on the part of the accident victims and their families. The consequences can range from a reduced ability to cope with pressure through to an inability to work.
In 2005, the accident costs bill underwent a fundamental review. This resulted in the adjustment of the calculation methods as well as a checking and updating of the parameters used in the model. Apart from the assessments previously made, since 2005 the costs caused by accident-related loss of time have also been included in the model.
The BASt calculation model is used to determine the accident costs broken down according to the degree of personal injury – deaths, severely injured and lightly injured.
Deaths caused by road accidents exhibit the highest cost position – at nearly 1.2 million Euros. Of this, the highest proportion of costs was the loss-of-resources position with 0.6 million Euros.