Dismal tally represents 2% of GDP
The 475 deaths, 2,675 serious injuries and 43,239 ‘light injuries’ that occurred in the 140,490 accidents involving Portuguese citizens on Portugal’s roads last year cost the country €5.5 billion, representing 2% of Portugal’s GDP (gross domestic product).
This is the opening sentence of a relatively seasonal story: every year media outlets quantify how much the awful ‘civil war’ played out on Portugal’s roads has cost the country, using an official study published in 2021.
According to Correio da Manhã, this year’s figures work out at a cost of €916 for each of the country’s six million taxpayers.
“The final number of accidents to the end of the year are still provisional”, explains the paper, stressing that the study commissioned by the ANSAR road safety authority attributes a cost of €3.3 million for each accident fatality.
On this basis, the 475 deaths registered by GNR and PSP police combined will have had a cost to the state of €1.6 billion.
Each serious injury costs €560,000, according to the study – meaning this year’s total will have cost the country €1.5 billion; and then each ‘light injury’ pans out with a cost of €54,000, ergo the 43,239 light injuries registered will have cost €2.3 billion.
These values emerge from the totting up of ‘the economic and social costs’ of road accidents; the costs in terms of property/ materials, as well as ‘immaterial costs’ – which is a form of accounting for the economic value of lives cut short, or permanently affected by accidents, by physical pain, emotional/ psychological trauma, the loss of quality of life and the overall temporary (or permanent) consequences of said accident.
According to the study drawn up by the centre for management studies of ISEG (Lisbon school of economics), human costs represent nearly 65% of the total cost of accidents with victims. There then follows around 27% for loss of production, followed by damage to property/ costs for medical treatments post accident, and administrative costs.
The study also shows that costs are much higher when it comes to men, although there are also significant costs when it comes to minors.
“As the age pyramid of victims for 2024 is not yet known, it is impossible to give a breakdown of these costs”, the paper admits. Suffice it to say, the ‘civil war’ on the nation’s roads grinds on relentlessly, in spite of all the seasonal road safety campaigns.
Accidents with tractors (which happen far too often, and usually involve the tractor toppling over) are, “by a large margin those with the greatest cost to society”, writes CM, estimating a cost of €466,998 per accident.
These tragedies are followed by accidents with heavy goods vehicles, with a cost estimated at €261,513 per accident, and then motorcycles (over 125 ccs) which carry an average cost of €235,393.
As to days of the week that are worst for accidents, these are invariably Sundays – with the month of August tending always to be the month where accidents carry the highest cost to society (estimated at €171,578 per accident).
Source material: Correio da Manhã
