In our country the damage is estimated at $545 mln – fatalities $95 mln and serious injuries $450 mln. In Armenia the hidden cost of road accidents is almost twice as high – $1.03 bln ($216 mln and $810 mln respectively. And even higher showed in Georgia – $1.21 billion total costs ($254 million and $953 million).
These alarming figures were released by the Eastern Partnership Road Safety Observatory (EaP RSO), a joint initiative of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. “Road accidents not only claim lives, but also result in multi-billion dollar economic losses every year,” the EaP RSO said in its publication.
“The majority of these costs are for serious injuries that can change people’s lives forever. Behind the numbers are the families, communities and national economies that are tangibly affected,” commented road safety experts on the data.
The initiative calls for investment in road safety to save lives and reduce the financial burden.
