Estimation of Socio-Economic Cost of Road Accidents in Saudi Arabia: Willingness-To-Pay Approach (WTP)

Road accident is one of the major causes of death in KSA. Therefore, making some important decisions, such as investing in traffic safety, improving roads or distributing research priorities and the necessary activities to strengthen the safety, all require either implicitly or explicitly the evaluation and estimation of the costs of these incidents, in order to make sure that those investments have an economical feasibility in the light of the limited economic resources. This research estimates the overall economic costs of road accident through focusing on estimating the value of human life and humanity, by measuring the probabilistic value of the willingness-to-pay, according to the model of Jones-Lee and others. This research also estimates the value of a statistical life (VOSL) for car drivers in Saudi Arabia, depending on applying the willingness-to pay approach, through a list questionnaire, depending on survey methodology. Results indicate that the Mean of the value of a statistical life in KSA was amounted to Saudian Riyals (SAR) 3.4 million. Accordingly, the cost of the life loss in KSA reached about SAR 49.4 billion, compared to the traffic accidents costs in general, including the fatalities, injuries and damages estimated to be SAR 54.9 billion. JEL classification numbers: J17, D61, J28, Q51.