Causes of damage in the sector of transport in Albania

• Author: Edvin Bica
• Position: University of Tirana
• Pages: 280-285

Vol. 1 No. 1

January 2017

European Journal of Economics, Law and Social Sciences

IIPCCL Publishing, Graz-Austria

ISSN 2519-1284

Acces online at www.iipccl.org

280

Causes of damage in the sector of transport in Albania

Edvin Bica

University of Tirana

Abstract

Road accidents represent a major problem around the globe. Besides the invaluable human

tragedy for each disaster, accidents cause huge economic losses. While some of the costs are

obvious, others can be distinguished with more di culty. For example, medical treatment for

a victim may continue for several years and in the worst cases even lifelong. Also, accidents

and injuries will deprive the economy of resources and manpower. For disasters and serious

injuries this will last for the entire life expectancy of the victims. Road accidents cost include

the loss of economic resources. People cherish their lives and well-being more than pure

economic losses.

In principle, they have a value on disaster risk reduction that can be expressed as a “value

of life”. Calculating the cost of accidents in monetary terms and the corresponding value of

preventing accidents is necessary for various purposes like:

• to illustrate the importance of social and economic burden on society caused by road

accidents;

• to calculate the potential monetary benefi ts of various security measures.

The fi rst need lies in the overall level of resource planning to ensure that road safety gets the

same importance as other investments. For this purpose, it is necessary to make su cient

calculations. To make such calculations, it is necessary to know the actual number of accidents/

disasters of various kinds and corresponding unit costs.

The second need is to ensure the best possible use of every investment in order to select

appropriate activities. Benefi ts from road improvements, security schemes and projects

are usually defi ned in terms of saving travel time, vehicle operating costs and reducing

environmental impact. Such assessments would be incomplete if these e ects are not

considered. Benefi ts are usually expressed in monetary terms to enable direct comparison with

the costs of their implementation. For this purpose, they require an accurate calculation of the

costs of accidents. For economic evaluations, it is necessary to know the estimated reductions

in the number of accidents/disasters of various kinds and monetary value.

Keywords: damage, injury, cost, human value, administrative costs.

Introduction

Calculating the total cost of accidents can be a very complex operation. The collection

of necessary data is a di cult process, however comparisons between the methods

used in di erent countries have shown many similarities. Usually, the total costs

for the calculation of accidents is considered su cient use of average unit costs for

di erent levels of consequences of accidents/disasters.

A problem arising in the calculation of the total cost of road accidents is to determine

the actual number of accidents and disasters of various kinds. In most countries, the