In Cars, Local News, Safety / By Anthony Lim / 28 February 2018 12:22 pm / 32 comments

Accidents cost lives, but just how much is a life worth from a monetary point of view? According to a study conducted by Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) on the economic aspect of road accidents, the cost of a life lost as a result of a road accident works out to be RM2.3 million, Bernama reports.

According to road safety department (JKJR) director-general Datuk Rosli Isa, road accidents involving 6,740 casualties had incurred costs around RM15 billion. The value stipulated in the study included medical and insurance costs.

“Accidents cause the country to lose important assets, while families experience difficulties. The main cause of accidents are drivers’ attitudes, such as being careless, not abiding by road safety rules and using mobile phones while driving. Most motorists commit this offence, but on the whole, the victims are motorcyclists,” he said.

The number of fatalities from road accidents in the country has never dipped below 6,000 since 2003. While last year’s numbers were lower than that of 2016, in which there were 7,152 fatalities, it’s still higher than that the 6,706 deaths recorded in 2015. In the first nine months of 2017, it was reported that 5,083 deaths had come about from 400,788 road accidents.

Last year, the government said that existing road safety campaigns had failed to reduce the number of road accidents in the country, despite the ministry of transport’s (MOT) Road Safety Plan 2014-2020 looking to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries by 50% by 2020.