Estimating the Costs Caused by Road Traffic Accidents in Romania

At European level, the costs caused by crashes are estimated at about 100 billions of Euros. This paper aims at estimating the costs of the road traffic accidents occurred in Romania and the Human Capital method is used to estimate that costs. Depending on the accidents' severity, several costs have been identified and the victims' lost output has been evaluated afterwards to give present-day values. Other costs, as the administrative ones regarding property's damage, funeral costs, and technical and legal expertise costs have been taken into account. Also, a significant value has been added in order to reflect the "pain, grief and suffering" of the crashes' victims and to all those who care for them as families, relatives or communities. It is the first time in Romania when such a study is conducted and shows that road accidents costs are approximately 1 % from the national GDP.