Keith Vodden Dr. Douglas Smith - Transports Canada

Analysis and Estimation of the Social Cost of Motor Vehicle Collisions in Ontario
hospital. For those admitted to hospital before dieing the average hospital stay is similar
to those with major injuries. We assign the estimated health care professional cost for
minor injuries and major injuries ($920 and $4600 respectively) to approximate the cost
for these two groups of fatalities respectively.
3. Police costs
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) charge-back municipalities for the cost of
police services they provide. They shared the model they use to estimate policing costs.
The model provides the 2006 base and fully-loaded costs for each level of staff. In
addition to base salaries, allocated items in the fully-loaded cost calculated by the model
include overtime (based on provincial averages), contractual payouts, benefits, allocated
other staff, and direct operating expenses (vehicle use, office and equipment, uniform,
and equipment). The OPP shared their model for our costing.
We apply these fully-loaded costs to the mix of OPP staff hours identified in the
earlier section to identify a fully-loaded average cost per police hour of activity expended
related to motor vehicle collisions. This fully loaded weighted average is $82.73 (2006$)
or $78 in 2004. We assume that other police forces operating in Ontario will have a
similar cost structure. We apply this weighted average fully-loaded hourly amount to
police activity expended. Potentially this average exceeds the marginal cost of an extra
police hour devoted to a motor vehicle collision. However, any difference is viewed as
being small.
4. Court activities
Data from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics of Statistics Canada (See
Exhibit A-19) provide an estimate of court costs to police costs over a five-year period
based on the total expenditures by each. Using this percentage (14.7%) and the fully
loaded police costs noted earlier we estimate a cost for court proceedings related to motor
vehicle collisions. This method assumes that court proceedings related to motor vehicle
collisions are as likely as for other police activities.
142 TNS Canadian Facts, Social and Policy Research