On 21 September 2026, the EaP RSO convened an online roundtable on how to measure the true cost of road traffic deaths. The discussion centred on the Value of a Statistical Life (VSL), the monetary value society places on reducing the risk of death, and on a new VSL value-transfer approach developed by the World Bank and W2Economics. Participating in the discussion were two authors of the new approach, Said Dahdah and Wim Wijnen. They were joined by the Observatory’s Data Team Lead, Mariam Lobjanidze.

Road crashes are a leading cause of death and disability among young and working-age people, affecting national productivity and household income. Said Dahdah (World Bank) opened by reflecting on the detrimental socio-economic impacts of crashes and the importance of using a robust and reliable cost measuring system. He specifically highlighted the broader social impacts of crashes, such as increased caring burdens to look after injured relatives which predominantly fall on women, that macro-economic evaluations fail to capture. VSL, however, as a metric to measure the monetary value of saving human lives based on a willingness to pay for risk reduction, allows policymakers to convert expected lives saved into monetary benefits, making the socio-economic burden of road deaths and the cost of inaction visible. Said illustrated the scarcity of country-specific VSLs amongst low- and middle-income countries (LMICS) and emphasised the importance of investing in and prioritising cost estimation procedures which broaden our understanding of the effects of road crashes on our societies.

Mariam illustrated the significance of VSL as a tool which assists governments in their efforts to monetise the benefits of their road safety interventions, such as building safer infrastructure. By applying the transfer function to the five EaP RSO countries, none of which have created their own VSL, she highlighted how this approach can be applied to countries with limited local VSL evidence. Moldova was found to have the highest and Armenia the lowest. Mariam concluded her presentation with observations that VSL can help compare alternative policies and projects, identify interventions that deliver the greatest safety benefit relative to cost, and allocate limited resources across infrastructure improvements, traffic enforcement, and education and prevention programmes.

Drawing on his PhD thesis, Wim addressed VSL transfer functions and their value for analysing estimates comparatively and to countries without a usable VSL. He stated that the variation in road crash cost estimates across different countries is primarily explained by the use of different methodologies to asses this. Therefore, a standardised procedure would be significantly beneficial to making cost comparisons. Wim explored the accuracy of VSL transfer functions and the emergence of Value of Preventing Serious Injury (VSI) studies. He noted that the transfer functions provide the best possible VSL for countries without their own estimates, but that new country-specific studies are still needed, especially in LMICs and, as VSL covers only part of societal costs, comprehensive studies including other costs and non-fatal crashes remain necessary.

A Q&A session was held after the presentations. Participants asked questions concerning the definition of serious injury, data availability in LMICS and institutionalising VSL in government decision-making. The session was attended by approximately 50 participants who included EaP RSO national focal points and government representatives from the partner countries, World Bank specialists, consultants and academics from beyond the region.