The road accidents recorded in Portugal in 2019 had an economic and social cost for the country estimated at 6.422,9 million euros, which represents 3,03% of the wealth created in the country that year.
Of this total cost, the largest share (83,5% of the total) refers to accidents with victims, totaling 5.362,7 million euros (2,53% of GDP), with the remaining 1.060,1 million euros (0,5. XNUMX% of GDP) to accidents with no victims and which only generated property damage.
These are some of the main conclusions drawn from the study on “The Economic and Social Impact of Road Accidents in Portugal”, developed by the Center for Management Studies of ISEG – Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, and which was presented today by ANSR – Autoridade Nacional of Road Safety.
Rui Ribeiro, president of ANSR, underlines, however, that «we have witnessed, in recent decades, a significant reduction in road accidents in Portugal, and this should be noted! It is remarkable that in 25 years we have gone from economic and social costs that represented 7% of GDP to a value that is around 3%, at 2019 prices, and that we have reduced the number of fatalities in the same period".
However, the same official also mentions, «we are still a considerable distance from our main objective: Zero Claims and that must be a national goal!».
Rui Ribeiro also states that “there is a clear conclusion that we can draw from this conference: investment in road safety has to be a national objective. Portugal has everything it needs to be an example at European level in this area, but for that, a clear political commitment and the involvement of the whole society are essential».
Among accidents with victims, the largest component of the total cost, representing 64,7% of that amount, concerns human costs, estimated at 3.471,1 million euros (1,635% of GDP). The second most significant component (representing 26,8% of the total) refers to the gross loss of production, estimated at 1.438 million euros (0,677% of GDP) in 2019.
Altogether, human costs and gross production loss represent 91,5% of the total cost of road accidents in Portugal.
Property damage caused by road accidents with casualties is estimated at €263,9 million (0,124% of GDP). The cost of medical treatment for road accident victims is estimated at €84,6 million (0,04% of GDP), while administrative costs are estimated at €78,5 million (0,037% of GDP).
The value of other costs amounts to 26,6 million euros (0,013% of GDP). If we also consider accidents with only material damage without victims, property damage resulting from road accidents with and without victims is estimated at 1.324,1 million euros (0,62% of GDP).
Despite these figures, in the last 25 years, there has been a significant reduction in the economic and social cost of road accidents with victims in Portugal, from an annual value that has exceeded 7% of GDP to a value that has stabilized in recent years in around 2.5% of GDP at current 2019 prices.
The main contribution to the annual reduction in the economic and social cost of road accidents was given by the significant gains recorded in the reduction of the number of more serious victims, in particular the 70% reduction in the number of fatalities in this period and the 80,7% decrease in the number of serious injuries.
The study released today is a fundamental tool for assessing the impact of public road safety policies and investment in road safety, namely in safer infrastructure.
Between 1995 and 2019, Portugal invested around 33.682 million in road infrastructure, having in the same period avoided 174.810 million euros in economic and social costs, an amount that corresponds to around 82,3% of the wealth created in Portugal in 2019, and which is more than five times the amount invested. Also in this period, the loss of 24.140 lives, 170.456 serious injuries and 211.615 minor injuries were avoided.
Investment in road safety and safer infrastructure is the best investment a country can make, as in addition to saving lives, it has a high economic and social return.
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