Recently, SWOV has calculated new figures for road safety costs in the Netherlands (SWOV report D-2000-17). SWOV had previously calculated these costs for 1993.
In the calculation of the new figures, cost data for 1997 were used. These were provided by the Transport Research Centre of the Ministry of Transport. Furthermore, SWOV used a number of new methods for calculating costs. To make the data comparable, a number of figures for 1993 were recalculated using these new methods.
The total road safety costs for 1997 were 16.8 billion Dutch guilders, which is approximately 15% more than the costs for 1993. This increase in costs is larger than the 9% increase in the cost of living in the period 1993-1997.
The total material and immaterial road safety costs for 1993 and 1997. All figures are in millions of Dutch guilders, and are expressed in current prices.
| Main Groups |
1993 costs (recalculated) |
1997 costs |
| Medical costs |
440 |
511 |
| Production loss (gross) |
4,346 |
5,397 |
| Material damage costs |
3,211 |
3,580 |
| Settlement costs |
1,280 |
1,410 |
| Sub-total |
9,277 |
10,898 |
| Congestion costs |
155 |
220 |
| Immaterial damage |
5,242 |
5,670 |
| Total |
14,674 |
16,788 |