U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
TECHNICAL ADVISORY
T 7570.2
October 31, 1994
Par.
3. BACKGROUND
"For the interim, those agencies that use a dollar value of life in economic analyses should use $1.5 million."
(1) Comprehensive Cost - a method of measuring motor vehicle accident costs that include the effects of injury on people's entire lives. This is the most useful measure of accident cost since it includes all cost components and places a dollar value on each one. Comprehensive life values are estimated by examining risk reduction costs from which the market value of safety is inferred. The 11 components of the comprehensive cost are: property damage, lost earnings, lost household production, medical costs, emergency services, travel delay, vocational rehabilitation, workplace costs, administrative, legal, and pain and lost quality of life.
(2) Years Lost Plus Direct Cost - includes the same cost components as the comprehensive cost category; however, it replaces lost earnings, lost household production, and pain and lost quality of life with a non-monetary measure: lost years. Those costs in this category which are given a monetary value are known as direct costs. Direct costs are property damage, medical costs, emergency services, travel delay, vocational rehabilitation, workplace costs, and administrative and legal costs.
(3) Human Capital Cost - includes all comprehensive cost components except pain and lost quality of life.
SEVERITY | DESCRIPTOR | COST
PER INJURY (DOLLARS) |
AIS 1 | Minor | 5,000 |
AIS 2 | Moderate | 40,000 |
AIS 3 | Serious | 150,000 |
AIS 4 | Severe | 490,000 |
AIS 5 | Critical | 1,980,000 |
AIS 6 | Fatal | 2,600,000 |
SEVERITY | DESCRIPTOR | COST
PER INJURY (DOLLARS) |
K | Fatal | 2,600,000 |
A | Incapacitating | 180,000 |
B | Evident | 36,000 |
C | Possible | 19,000 |
PDO | Property Damage Only | 2,000 |
Dennis C. Judycki
Associate Administrator
for Safety and
System Applications