Valuing the Benefits of Reducing the Risk of Non-Fatal Road Injuries: The Swedish Experience

The Swedish National Road Administration’s (NRA’S) method for evaluating traffic safety effects of new roads and alternative safety improvements implies that an average casualty is set a certain cost or value. This average cost per casualty is divided into material costs and “human value”. The material costs consist of health-care costs, net lost production, costs of property damage and administration. The human value (including a value of lost consumption due to premature death) corresponds to the willingness to pay approach. This definition is considered to be theoretically consistent with the principles of cost-benefit analysis and comparable with methodology used in other European countries, e.g. in Great Britain (O’Reilly et al. 1994), see also a recent report published by the Commission of the European Communities (COST-313 1994).