THE COST OF INJURIES SUSTAINED IN ROAD CRASHES

The purpose of this study was to develop injury-based costs for Australia by body region and injury severity level of the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS). Most other studies that have investigated the costs of road trauma have used the injured person or the crash as the costing unit rather than the injury. This study reports costs in Australian dollars for the year 2000. The average cost of a road injury was estimated as A$40,100 based on the compensation approach and A$57,100 using the Willingness to Pay approach. The exchange rate in June 2000 was A$1 = US$0.5964. The results showed a wide variation in costs across body regions and severity levels. These cost differences are discussed.