Hidden costs of traffic accidents in Thailand
By Jon Fernquest |
The Monday business section of the Bangkok Post covers the economic impact of traffic accidents in Thailand.
"The statistics show that more vehicles have meant more road accidents - more than 120,000 in 2005 against fewer than 25,000 in 1987."
According to the table to the right, Thailand has either the first or second highest number of deaths and injuries due to traffic accidents in Southeast Asia and the second highest (behind Indonesia) of economic losses. Thailand also probably has more cars per capita than any other Southeast Asian country.
Dr. Pichai Taneerananon, a Prince of Songkhla University professor, observes:
"Imagine how much we could save if we could reduce the number of annual traffic fatalities by 5,000 within five years"
One good way to visualise these costs is think of the hardships that a family goes through to take care of, let's say, a young son hit by a car on his motorcycle while out drinking with friends late at night and paralyzed for the rest of his life. This is in addition to the pain and emotional suffering the victim and their family experience. (I personally know of cases. This pain cannot be expressed in words.)
Check out the traffic accident cost calculator for Thailand at the Department of Highways.
Read another economic study of the cost of traffic accidents done by the California government.
Thailand is not alone. Traffic accidents are one of the main causes of premature death (dieing before 65) in California.
Read an academic paper on an Australian study into the cost of traffic accidents useing the human resource approach discussed in this article.
(See photo of people driving without motorcycle helmets below right, many people still believe that helmets aren't necessary at night because police don't give tickets at night)
Here is the article in full:
Putting a price on accidents
Study rings alarm bell on huge costs. By Chiratas NivatpuminMonday March 31, 2008
What is a human life worth? All life is precious, of course. But a new study from the Highways Department aims to put a figure on the cost to society from road accidents.
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The findings are staggering. Road accidents cost Thailand 232.8 billion baht in financial terms in 2007, or 2.8% of gross domestic product. Put another way, the cost was 60% more than the government spent on health services last year.
The World Bank-financed study was based on research done from 2005-07.
Pichai Taneerananon, a Prince of Songkhla University professor who led the study team, said researchers used a "human capital approach". It considers a person's worth to the economy and the productivity that could have been saved if an accident were prevented.
"In spiritual terms, life is of course infinite," Assoc Prof Pichai said. "But in economic terms, one person's death causes the loss of income to his or her family, and the loss of labour as well as productivity to the nation."
The costs are high: At 2007 prices, a single traffic fatality in Bangkok cost as much as 11.08 million baht, and a disability 12.44 million. Nationwide, the average was 5.32 million for a fatality and 6.17 million for a single disability.
"When someone is disabled by a road accident, you have to provide them long-term care and medical treatment for as long as they live," Assoc Prof Pichai said. "This is why a crash that leaves a person disabled is more expensive than the one that kills. These long-term costs have to be borne either by the government or private individuals."
Besides the loss of labour and productivity, there are medical, administrative, vehicle and property costs. Also included are the costs of long-term care and the loss of quality of life, as well as the inability of victims to pursue happiness and maintain a normal lifestyle.
Chanin Manopiniwes, an infrastructure economist at the World Bank in Bangkok, said the study showed the huge benefits from improved road safety.
"Not only does improvement of road safety help save lives, it will also help the government prevent unnecessary economic losses," Mr Chanin said.
"The annual costs of road crashes to society are huge - at 2.8% of the GDP. You can build 100 kilometres of a mass rapid rail with that much money."
The statistics show that more vehicles have meant more road accidents - more than 120,000 in 2005 against fewer than 25,000 in 1987.
Compared to the rest of the region, however, Thailand's accident losses fall just below the Asean average (see table).
[Comment: According to the table above, Thailand has either the first or second highest number of deaths and injuries due to traffic fatalities and the second highest (behind Indonesia) of economic losses from road accidents]
A separate study by the World Health Organisation in 2004 put the global cost of accidents at $518 billion, or more than the economic output of the entire African continent.
The Thai study was financed by a World Bank loan to the Highways Department. Data were collected from government agencies, the private sector, law enforcement and the courts.
"Imagine how much we could save if we could reduce the number of annual traffic fatalities by 5,000 within five years," said Assoc Prof Pichai.
(Source: Bangkok Post, business section, 31-03-08, Chiratas Nivatpumin, temp-link)
Vocabulary:
road accidents, car accidents - when one vehicle (car, truck, bus) collides with another vehicle or a roadside object resulting in death, injury, and property damage, other words used include: auto accident, car crash, car smash, car wreck, fender bender, motor vehicle accident (MVA), personal injury collision (PIC), road accident, road traffic accident (RTA), road traffic collision (RTC), road traffic incident (RTI), traffic collision (See Wikipedia on car accidents and road traffic safety)
road casualties - people who are either: 1. injured, or 2. killed, in an accident or war
traffic fatalities - people who die in traffic accidents
paralyzed - loss of muscle function and the ability to move due to injury to the nervous system (See Wikipedia on paralysis and spinal cord injury)
per capita - per person (Indonesia may well have more cars since it has one of the largest populations in the world)
premature - happened before the usual or necessary time
premature death - dieing before you had to (statistically, that is)
putting a price on - assign a price to something that people do not usually use a price for, like human life, for instance
rings alarm bell - is a warning that something must be done (like the alarm system on a car or building)
the findings - the findings of a study or report
staggering amounts - very large amounts
X in terms of Y - X described by Y, X from point of view or aspect Y
in financial terms - described from the financial point of view or aspect (traffic injuries obviously cause untold human suffering and misery for both the victims and their loved ones, so the financial aspect is obviously only one aspect)
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - a measure of economic activity in a country, calculated by adding the total value of a country's annual output of goods and services, GDP = Consumption + Investment + Government spending + change in inventories + (Exports - Imports) (See The Economist glossary)
human capital - the skills and knowledge that helps people earn a living, increased through investments in education, training and health care (See The Economist glossary and Nobel Prize economist Gary S. Becker on human capital and Wikipedia)
human capital approach - an economics approach to estimating the cost and benefits of an existing situation or a prject planned for the future (See Australian academic paper and Wikipedia on cost-benefit analysis)
productivity - the amount of output or production that an economy gets for a given level of inputs such as labour and capital (See The Economist glossary)
disabled - the inability of a person to carry on their normal life and work due to an injury or illness, for instance if they must use a wheel chair or become blind (See Wikipedia on disability)
costs have to be borne either by the government or private individuals -
quality of life - the degree of well-being felt by an person or group of people, often very differ from income depending on such factors as health, stress levels, lean air, time spent in traffic jams, work hours, free time, the neighborhood you live in, some might say that the quality of life in the provinces is greater than Bangkok (See Wikipedia)
