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Socio-Economic Costing of Road Traffic Accidents:Evidence from Nagpur City, Maharashtra, India


Affiliations
1 Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur 208 106, India
2 Department of Civil Engineering, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur 440 010, India
 

Road traffic accidents (RTAs) have become a serious problem worldwide as they incur losses of around 2% of a country’s gross domestic product (GDP). RTAs are one of the major causes of death and injury in developing countries like India. To enable governments to take policy decisions on road safety, it is necessary that good research is undertaken to estimate the cost of accidents. This kind of study will help governments make important decisions on investment in traffic safety, improvement of roads and other facilities. On the other hand, evaluation and estimation of the costs of RTAs will help governments ascertain economic feasibility of policy decisions given limited economic resources. Apart from humanitarian losses, the contribution to economic losses from RTAs is alarmingly high, as most people involved in accidents are from the most economically active and productive agegroups of a society. The main objective of this study is to establish the cost components of road accidents in Nagpur city, Maharashtra, India. The methodologies for such studies generally vary according to traffic pattern, modal share, accident pattern, etc. This study makes use of a system dynamics approach, which provides a comprehensive understanding of the problem for Indian cities. Data were collected and collated with major inputs from the Traffic Department of the city for all road accidents from 2010 to 2015. The study found that the costs recorded for RTAs amounted to INR 935.5 million in 2015, which was 0.09% of the city’s GDP. In addition, major cost components were evaluated by varying the severity level.

Keywords

Road Traffic Accidents, Safety Measures, Socio-Economic Costing, System Dynamics Approach.
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  • Socio-Economic Costing of Road Traffic Accidents:Evidence from Nagpur City, Maharashtra, India

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Authors

Bhaswati Bora
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur 208 106, India
Vishrut Landge
Department of Civil Engineering, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur 440 010, India
Bahuguna Dalai
Department of Civil Engineering, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur 440 010, India

Abstract


Road traffic accidents (RTAs) have become a serious problem worldwide as they incur losses of around 2% of a country’s gross domestic product (GDP). RTAs are one of the major causes of death and injury in developing countries like India. To enable governments to take policy decisions on road safety, it is necessary that good research is undertaken to estimate the cost of accidents. This kind of study will help governments make important decisions on investment in traffic safety, improvement of roads and other facilities. On the other hand, evaluation and estimation of the costs of RTAs will help governments ascertain economic feasibility of policy decisions given limited economic resources. Apart from humanitarian losses, the contribution to economic losses from RTAs is alarmingly high, as most people involved in accidents are from the most economically active and productive agegroups of a society. The main objective of this study is to establish the cost components of road accidents in Nagpur city, Maharashtra, India. The methodologies for such studies generally vary according to traffic pattern, modal share, accident pattern, etc. This study makes use of a system dynamics approach, which provides a comprehensive understanding of the problem for Indian cities. Data were collected and collated with major inputs from the Traffic Department of the city for all road accidents from 2010 to 2015. The study found that the costs recorded for RTAs amounted to INR 935.5 million in 2015, which was 0.09% of the city’s GDP. In addition, major cost components were evaluated by varying the severity level.

Keywords


Road Traffic Accidents, Safety Measures, Socio-Economic Costing, System Dynamics Approach.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv114%2Fi06%2F1275-1283