Every year, the accidents naturally cost cher. Because you have to take into account downtime, repairs, loss of time, possible bodily harm and even deaths. According to a investigation published by the Institute VIASthis cost would in fact be enormous when adding up all the parameters: it would amount to 10.9 billion euros each year.
For VIAS, accidents represent human suffering, but there is also a significant financial cost. A death following an accident would thus cost no less than 7 million euros while for a injured person seriously, this would amount to 700.000 euros and 70,000 euros for one who was slightly injured. The sums are therefore colossal.
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Because, of course, the consequences financial consequences of an accident are numerous: travel by emergency services, intervention by them, material damage to vehicles and infrastructure, loss of time, but also, in the most serious cases, economic losses for a deceased (necessarily) or immobilized person, care and rehabilitation, insurance, etc.
In total, we therefore reach 11 billion euros for the year 2022. Efforts to reduce accidents and improve road safety therefore have a dual objective: human and cost for society. In 2023, it should be remembered that there were 501 deaths on Belgian roads, a figure which however decreased last year with 39 fewer people killed. Among the seriously injured, there would also be an improvement with 140 fewer victims. This is progress which, according to VIAS and the outgoing federal Minister of Mobility, Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo), would have made it possible to reduce the slate by almost 500 million.
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It is therefore also for these reasons of costs that the authorities are tightening the screw and are currently taking so many measures to change behaviors. And it’s not over: the upcoming entry into force of measures intended in particular to better combat driving under the influence of foreign drivers will constitute a further step in trying to reduce the number of tragedies on Belgian roads. Note that things are improving, however, since this same cost was estimated by VIAS at 13 billion euros in 2019. But there is still a way to go to reach the objective of zero deaths.
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