Railway safety performance in the European Union

Accident costs and other CSIs
The data on the cost of accidents show wide variation and it is evident to the Agency that the Member States have
problems in establishing reporting regimes for accident cost data. The revised Annex 1 of the railway safety directive will
require the NSAs to use the willingness-to-pay approach
based on estimates of the ‘value of preventing a casualty’
(VPC). They can either estimate a national value or use
the reference values given in the Agency’s guidance. It is
believed that this will simplify the work for the Member
States and will lead to a consistent and harmonised
approach. Using the CSI data for 2007–2009 and fall-back
values of costs for fatality and serious injury updated with
GDP data, the Agency has made a calculation of accident
costs.
Costs for preventing casualties (fatalities and serious
injuries) were calculated for the past years as shown in
Figure 8. By adding the national values together, we obtain
a value of EUR 2 billion representing the economic burden of
rail casualties in 2009 for all Member States.
The value of preventing a casualty (VPC)
is composed of:
(1) value of safety per se: willingness-to-pay (WTP)
values based on stated preference studies carried out
in the Member State for which they are applied;
(2) direct and indirect economic costs: cost values
appraised in the Member State, composed of medical
and rehabilitation cost; legal court cost, cost for
police, private crash investigations, the emergency
service and administrative costs of insurance;
production losses: value to society of goods and
services that could have been produced by the person
if the accident had not occurred.
Figure 8: Values of preventing casualties in euros (2007–2009)
2 000 000 000
1 800 000 000
1 600 000 000
1 400 000 000
1 200 000 000
1 000 000 000
800 000 000
600 000 000
400 000 000
200 000 000
0
2007 2008 2009
• Killed
•
Seriously injured
23