The value of preventing non-fatal road injuries: findings of a willingness-to-pay national sample survey

In 1988 the Department of Transport reviewed its valuation of a fatal casualty arising from a road traffic accident (see IRRD 816786). As a result a valuation based on willingness to pay (WTP) criterion was introduced, and a figure of 500,000 in 1987 prices was adopted. Following this it became necessary to revalue serious non-fatal and slight injuries. This report presents the results of one of two studies commissioned by TRL into the revaluation of non-fatal casualty costs on behalf of the Department of Transport. The alternative study, (Ives et al 1993, see IRRD 857397) reports the results of the application of relative utility loss methodologies to this problem. This report presents the resutls of a national sample survey of people's WTP to reduce the risk of a serious injury in a road traffic accident. It describes the testing of various elicitation procedures, the development of the national sample survey, questionnaire design and the analysis of the responses. It then presents the results of the national sample survey and after discussion recommends values to the Department of Transport.