Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The False Economy of Road Safety Cuts

This blog has been making the point for a while now that road deaths are very expensive in cash terms, so the Coalition's policy of cutting speed cameras police budgets and forcing more people onto the roads by disinvesting in public transport will cost the country dear.

It's good that the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) has got some numbers to back up the assertion, reported by the RAC.

Every serious accident on UK's roads costs the economy £1.79 million in health care, lost output, pain and suffering.


Neil Greig, IAM policy and research director, said: "These staggering figures prove conclusively that investing in saving lives on the roads saves the country money, so funding being taken away from this area is a false economy. 
"Meeting our casualty reduction targets has meant that deaths on Britain's roads have halved over the past 20 years with 31,000 deaths avoided and savings to the economy of around £50 billion.
"The IAM calculates that achieving similar targets for road deaths by 2020 would save society 2,500 lives and the economy over £4 billion."

1 comment:

  1. Government should conduct road safety programs and imply safety rules to avoid fatal road crashes.
    Hardship License Florida

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