oa Cost analysis of road accidents in the State of Qatar

Road accidents generally receive less public attention than other types of transport-related accidents. This could be due to the importance placed on road safety by a country or society. In some societies, road accidents are accepted as fate. These societies fail to understand that road accidents are preventable and result in significant losses of resources. One way of bringing the importance of road safety to the attention of governments and societies is to show the real cost of accidents.

There are two main uses for estimate of crash costs in developing countries. First, an estimate of total annual costs of traffic crashes can be used for resource allocation at a national level to ensure road safety is given due recognition. Second, estimates of unit crash costs by injury severity can be used to ensure that best use is made of any investment, through economic appraisal. In evaluating the safety measures through cost benefit analysis, policy makers require a reliable monetary estimate of the benefits of reduced occurrences of crashes. The study reported in this paper is, to the authors’ knowledge, the first ever attempt to estimate the socio-economics costs of accidents in the State of Qatar. Accident data and cost figures of the years 2005, 2006 and 2007 are considered to make the estimation of annual accident cost of Qatar.

This paper aims to review accident costing methodologies which are applied in developed and developing countries. Various methods exist for costing of road accidents and the method used in this current study is the gross output (or human capital) approach. This method takes into account the loss of resources such as vehicle damage, medical treatment, police and administration cost, and damage to street furniture. It also takes into account the cost of pain and suffering of the victim and to those who care for the victim. When properly incorporated in safety project evaluation, the findings of this study should help promote investment in road safety.