Keith Vodden Dr. Douglas Smith - Transports Canada
Keith Vodden Dr. Douglas Smith - Transports Canada
Keith Vodden Dr. Douglas Smith - Transports Canada
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
II<br />
SOCIAL COST FINDINGS AND MODEL OVERVIEW<br />
A. INTRODUCTION<br />
This chapter presents key findings on the social costs of motor vehicle collisions<br />
and an overview of the Social Cost Model that produced them. More detail on the<br />
model’s component parts and social cost findings can be found in separate chapters<br />
devoted to the models of the social costs of motor vehicle collisions for: Ontario; sub-sets<br />
of collisions in Ontario; Canadian jurisdictions; and individuals covered by the WS&IB<br />
as well as in Appendices.<br />
For ease of presentation, this chapter provides social cost estimates for all models<br />
based on the willingness to pay (WTP) approach and medium scenario for estimating the<br />
value of human consequences of motor vehicle collisions. The willingness to pay<br />
methodology applies a constant value to human consequences regardless of the gender,<br />
age, employment status, or category (driver, passenger, or pedestrian) of individual. The<br />
medium scenario calculates average values for human consequences based on previous<br />
WTP estimates and on recent (higher) estimates that eliminate biases in the earlier values<br />
based on WTP. Estimates based on other valuation methods and scenarios are presented<br />
in later chapters and appendices.<br />
B. SOCIAL COSTS OF MOTOR VEHICLE COLLISIONS<br />
1. Ontario—all collisions<br />
Motor vehicle collisions in Ontario in 2004 have a social cost of $17.9 billion.<br />
Although fatal collisions accounted for less than 1% of the 231,548 Highway Traffic Act<br />
(HTA) reportable collisions, they represented $11.5 billion or 64% of total social costs<br />
estimated in 2004. Injury collisions make up 27% of all collisions and 27% or $5.0 billion<br />
of all costs. Property Damage Only (PDO) collision—while the largest collision group at<br />
73% resulted in $1.3 billion or 8% of social costs.<br />
Among total social costs the most significant cost components were:<br />
• Fatalities — $11.1 billion (62%).<br />
• Injuries — $3.9 billion (22%).<br />
• Property damage — $1.8 billion (10%).<br />
• Traffic delays — $0.5 billion (3%).<br />
• Out-of-pocket expenses — $0.2 billion (1%).<br />
TNS Canadian Facts, Social and Policy Research 3