Epidemiology and economic impact of road traffic accidents in the United Arab Emirates

High rates of serious road traffic accidents (RTAs) have been reported for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in recent years. This research aims to describe the problem in the UAE and to quantify its economic burden on the country’s resources. The approach chosen is quantitative, based on methods of RTA epidemiology and economic evaluation. The research is carried in two parts. Part one attempts to identify trends of morbidity and mortality from RTAs during 1981-1995, to compare the magnitude of the problem with other countries, to evaluate information available on possible causes, to estimate future forecasts of the problem and to analyse RTA injury severity before and after enforcing seatbelt legislation. The results of part one provide the basis to evaluate the economic impact of the problem during 1995 and to estimate the rational investment levels for improving safety and health, in part two. The Human Capital (HC) approach is used to estimate the economic costs of RTAs in the UAE during 1995. To estimate RTA comprehensive costs the study adds to the latter the costs of pain, grief and suffering (PGS) to RTA victims, drawn worldwide, using the Willingness to Pay (WTP) value approach. Data were obtained from police, health and WHO sources to describe trends in morbidity and mortality from 1981 to 1995. The results revealed that during the period 1981-1995, the rates of RTAs per 100,000 population and per 100,000 motor vehicles declined in the UAE by a trend component of -96.5 (pR2 =0.69) and by -522 (ppR2 =0.56) and -5.1 (pR2 =0.330); and injury rates declined by a trend component of -6.8 (pR2 =0.341) and -28.0 (p= n.s.) respectively. Paradoxically, however, except for a short period (1981-1985), a steady increase in the risk of injury and death in each RTA accompanied these declines. Between 1985 - 1995 the severity rate of RTA injuries more than doubled (pp