Implications for Organisations

For organisations a road traffic accident can have a large impact.  If the driver was in a company vehicle at the time it will affect their insurance bills as well as the inconvenience of vehicle needing to be replaced whilst its being repaired. If the driver has to miss work it will affect the productivity of the company and, in order to overcome this, they may need to employ somebody else which would then cost them even more money. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) estimate that 1 million working days a year are lost due to employees being involved in road traffic accidents whilst carrying out their jobs.

The true costs of road accidents to organisations are nearly always significantly higher than the resulting insurance claims. Health and Safety Executive research into workplace accidents generally (The Costs of Accidents - HSG96) suggests that, for every £1 recovered through insurance, between £8 and £36 may be lost via uninsured costs.

Many costs (such as lost time in wages and salaries; lost orders and output; administrative costs, legal fees; and costs due to other kinds of business interruption) may not be recoverable. Road accidents can also have a negative impact on staff morale and can damage the organisation’s image in the outside world (for example, when liveried vehicles are involved). Many, if not most, of these costs will not be recovered from insurance claims, and therefore, will directly reduce the organisation's profit or financial surplus.  

Companies also need to be aware of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1999) makes them responsible for their employees' safety whilst driving or riding for work purposes.  This does not involve commuting unless the employee is travelling to a place other than their normal place of work.   

Traffic Flow  

Congestion is becoming an increasing problem on our roads and the occurrence of road traffic accidents is adding to the frustration that frequent hold-ups cause.  It is estimated (Transport Research Laboratory) that accidents cause 24% of the congestion evident on today's roads.  The rest of the congestion is made up of traffic density (66%) and road works (10%).  

Financial Costs

The drain on the economy of due to road traffic accidents is enormous and any reduction in the frequency of accidents will bring many benefits as the money is used in other areas (an example of this is given in our physical injuries page).  Two examples of this financial drain are that fact that the average cost of a fatal accident is £1,447,490 and the average insurance claim made is £1,804.  More costs of the different types of accidents are displayed below:  

Financial Costs of Road Traffic Accidents (per accident)