The costs of occurring traffic accidents and transportation in Turkey

The number of motor vehicles and the traffic volume on highways has started to increase rapidly with the economic growth, population growth, and increasing income in recent years in Turkey. The number of registered motor vehicles has increased by approximately % 149 in the last 15 years and reached 22 million 850 thousand 238. It is estimated that the country's highways, which will reach a population of 90 million in 2035, will reach a transportation volume of 5 trillion tons-km and 500 billion passengers-km, and highway infrastructure expenditures will dominate at least until 2023. Increasing transportation activities cause negative results such as traffic accidents as well as many benefits. In general, the cost of traffic accidents in most countries is estimated to be around % 1-3 of gross national income. In this study, it has been tried to determine the external costs and transportation cost caused by the traffic accidents that took place in Turkey between 2008-2018 on a provincial basis. For the external costs of traffic accidents, two different calculations were made according to the Human capital (BS) and Protection cost (KM) methods. According to the BS method, the external cost of deaths cawed by traffic accidents was calculated as 560.5 million TL with 2.339 deaths in 2008 for the traffic police responsibility area and approximately 1.3 billion TL with 1.754 deaths in 2018. Although deaths in TPSB decreased by % 25 between 2008 and 2018, the calculated external costs increased by % 127. In the gendarmerie responsibility area, the external cost, which was calculated as 245 million TL for 1.011 deaths in 2008 as a result of traffic accidents, was calculated as 2.7 billion TL with 3.669 deaths in 2018. Mortality in JSB increased by % 263 and calculated external costs increased by % 394. The total external costs calculated for TPSB and JSB using the human capital method were calculated as 805 million TL in 2008 and approximately 4 billion TL in 2018. External costs according to the KM method, external costs were calculated as 31.6 billion TL in 2008 and the external costs of traffic accidents that occurred in 2018 were calculated as 200 billion TL with an increase of % 112 on a € basis and a % 199 increase of % 533 on a TL basis compared to 2008. The external cost of accidents was equal to % 3.18 of GDP in 2008 and % 5.37 in 2018. The protection cost, which was 2,296 TL per vehicle in 2008, was calculated as 8,748 TL in 2018. The province with the highest protection cost calculated was Istanbul with 6.2 billion TL in 2008 and 36.5 billion TL in 2018. The province with the lowest protection cost was Tunceli with 9.6 million TL in 2008 and 80.8 million TL in 2018. According to the protection cost method, the external accident cost per 1000 km between 2008 and 2018 was found to be 41 TL (14 €) on highways, 89 TL (30 €) on state roads, 97 TL (33 €) on provincial roads and 81 TL (27 €) on average. The total amount spent on road transport in Turkey in 2008 was 45.5 billion TL, and in 2018 it was approximately 259 billion TL. The accident cost estimations found not only emphasize the importance of traffic accidents once again but also point out that investments to be made to increase road and traffic safety will have great economic potential and internal profitability. With this study, the importance of making road investments with a sustainable understanding has been tried to be revealed clearly by showing the ratio of motor vehicle accidents and transportation costs and the percentage of gross domestic product for decision makers, policy makers and all kinds of institutions and organizations interested in roads.