Mohammad Reza Ahadi - Assistant Professor, Road, Housing & Urban Development Research Center, Tehran. Iran.
Hesamoddin Razi-Ardakani - Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Civil Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

Road traffic accidents and the effects they subsequently incur are increasing dramatically, andestimating the cost of road traffic crashes could be a vital step in improving the recognition of thiswidespread problem. The main objective of this paper is to estimate the cost of road traffic crashesin Iran using the Human Capital (HC) Method. Results of this study indicate that the cost of roadtraffic crashes in Iran for the year 2009 was approximately 114,455 billion Iranian Rials (about$US 11.458 billion), which accounted for 1.41% of Iran’s Gross National Product (GNP) in thatyear. This study shows that lost output and property damage account for the largest proportion ofthis cost, whereas human, administration and medical costs are the next highest contributors. Inaddition, this study estimates the cost of accidents in Iran for the year 2009, depending on theirstatus as fatal, causing serious injury, slight injury and property-damage-only.

Human Capital Method, crashes, costs, developing countries