Road safety cameras save 23 lives a year, study reveals

The introduction of safety cameras on Irish roads has saved an average of 23 lives a year, a study has found.

The first cost-benefit analysis of safety cameras in Ireland has also found the benefits of safety cameras outweighed costs by more than five to one.

Department of Transport economist Derek Rafferty examined the introduction of about 50 GoSafe camera vans at accident black spots in 2011, and found there were clear benefits to their introduction.

The annual cost of operating GoSafe camera vans was €16.59 million, but the benefits through prevented accidents at more than 500 accident black spots amounted to more than five times this amount at €86.97 million, according to Mr Rafferty.

“I was expecting the cost-benefit analysis to be positive . . . but I never expected it to be so positive,” he told the Dublin Economics Workshop 37th annual economic policy conference in Cork.

Mr Rafferty looked at more than 500 accident black spots from 2005 to 2010, before camera vans were installed, then re-examined the same black spots from 2011 to 2103, when the GoSafe vans were introduced.

He factored in reductions in traffic volumes over the study period, as well as national trends in accident reduction due to greater enforcement, engineering and road safety education.

Lives saved

For the first two years of the study, 2011 and 2012, 24 lives had been saved. In 2013, 23 lives were saved, with 71 lives saved over the entire three-year period.

Using internationally recognised statistics – which set the statistical value of a life in 2013 at €2.67 million, composed of 50 per cent lost earnings and productivity and 50 per cent pain and suffering – Mr Rafferty was able to calculate the financial benefit of saving 23 lives per annum.

The actual accident savings amounted to some €80 million, while fine revenue from those detected speeding by the vans amounted to a further €6.9 million, to give an overall benefit total of €86.97 million.