Study of the Economic Cost of Road Accidents in Jordan

Abstract

Traffic accidents in Jordan represent a serious problem, where every day about 2 persons die by road accidents, and the country loses between 2-3 percent of its gross domestic products (GDP) due to this problem. This research aims to estimate the total and unit costs (per crash severity and vehicle type) of road accidents in Jordan during three years (2011 through 2013) using human capital approach, and also to estimate the value of statistical life in Jordan for risk reduction of person’s death by road accident using willingness-to-pay approach. The results revealed that Jordan is still suffering from a continuous rise in its road accidents’ costs without a sufficient improvement accompanied with the dramatic increases in its number of vehicles and population (during the study period), especially after the crisis of Syrian refugees who enter the Jordan during this period. The estimated total costs of accident in the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 were about US $ (3814, 4718 and 5146, respectively, which constituted 2.5%, 2.3% and 2.25% of the total country’s GDP for the same years.