German experts are trying to analyze the impact of traffic accidents’ huge cost on the budget of Berlin’s government. Although it is difficult to determine the final sum Germany pays each year, the total cost of traffic accidents - whether due to bicycles, motorcycles or various types of transport means- is estimated to reach billions of euros annually.
Veronica Templeman, an expert of traffic accidents and their causes, says the number of road deaths is continuously falling, mainly due to the safer and more sophisticated roads’ infrastructure thanks to today's technology.
Last year, for example, 3,214 casualties were recorded, with a decrease of 1.9% compared to 2016. In contrast, the number of wounded, whose injuries ranged from severe injuries, disabilities and minor injuries were about 400,000, with an increase of 0.8% compared to the previous year.
Over the past year, the police have recorded 2.6 million traffic accidents in general, up 2.8% from a year earlier. Among those accidents, some 2.3 million caused only material damages.
In the cases of casualties, whether death or injury, the cost of material compensation would be higher if the victim is a hard-to-replace experienced worker, in addition to the burden of the medical care services,
and treatment in hospitals, and all the psychological, physiological, and legal costs. The cost of a victim's death varies depending on the age group, efficiency and years of experience in the field of work.
The expert at the Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (PEST) estimates the financial losses of each victim of a traffic accident in Germany to be between 0.6 and 1.2 million euros, based on the abovementioned criteria.
By comparison, according to Thomas Foster, an expert at the institute, the full costs paid by the US Department of Transportation for each victim of a traffic accident in the United States attain about $1.25 million. This is roughly equivalent to the amount paid by Berlin’s government to each victim.
This cost reached NZ $4.18 million, or US $ 2.47 million in New Zealand last year. In Switzerland, traffic accidents last year caused 216 casualties, 15% less than a year earlier, and the financial losses amounted between 270 and 540 million euros.
Germany, according to the expert, remains among the countries paying the highest financial and economic costs as its traffic accidents in Europe, with the death of about 3,314 people in 2017, in addition to the various injuries and material losses, and the total financial losses exceed 7 billion euros.
According to Claudia Ray of the Federal Ministry of Transport, the cost of traffic accidents involving human and material losses in the European Union reached 100 billion euros last year. Among one million people there, 52 are killed every year, compared to 106 deaths in the United States, and an average of 174 deaths per year in the rest of the world.
Malta and Sweden are among the countries with the lowest rate of traffic accidents in Europe. Malta has 26 victims out of a million citizens a year, and Sweden has only 27 victims each year.
Back to Germany, 46% of the traffic accidents’ deaths were caused by vehicles, 17% by motorcycle, and 8% by bicycle.
According to the expert, medical, judicial and insurance agencies are the main beneficiaries of traffic accidents. As the trend of electric vehicles with less speed is rapidly spreading in Europe, Ray expects a fall in the number of traffic fatalities by more than 30% this year, which is a very good news for the German government.
