Prioritisation of accident blackspots for improvement based on economic criteria

Abstract

newline Traffic accidents are unfortunate happenings on the road and may be considered a severe newlinetransportation topic worldwide and are becoming the leading cause of death among newlineyoungsters. Road accidents, with their colossal death count, high hospital costs, newlinesubstantial count of non-hospitalized injured persons and existence of long-term newlinedisabling conditions, impose a considerable economic burden on the persons involved, newlinetheir families and society as a whole. It not only causes death and injuries but also results newlinein pain, grief and suffering. newlineStudies show that a substantial part of the total social cost of road safety is contributed newlineby the human loss in road accidents. The cost of road accidents occupies a major share newlineof a country s economy; hence the execution of safety improvement measures to bring newlinedown traffic accidents and thus reduce financial losses is essential. To identify the best newlinesafety improvement schemes and to allocate the limited financial resources of the country newlineeffectively, an evaluation of the cost of accidents is essential. Identification of the most newlinedangerous locations and their economic impact on society will help for the better newlineplacement of the finite national fund in injury prevention projects. As the safety newlineupgrading schemes impose a remarkable financial load on a country s budget, a tool is newlineneeded to prioritise the expenditure on safety improvement projects. newlineThe huge financial impact of traffic accidents easily justifies the high investment in newlineroad safety promotion. The range of traffic accident costs widely varies, as reported by newlineWorld Bank (Global Road Safety Partnership), from 0.3 per cent of GDP (Vietnam) to 5 newlineper cent of GDP (USA). Another study observes that in OECD (Organisation for