Estimating the severity levels of road traffic crashes in Bahrain with crash costs estimated with different approaches

An important issue in analyzing accident blackspots is the estimation of severity levels of different types of accidents. This study aims to estimate the severity level of accidents in Bahrain using crash costs. These crash costs were calculated by the Human Capital Approach (HCA) and total reported costs from the victims. The data was collected from the General Directorate of Traffic, insurance companies, Ministry of Works (MoW) and Ministry of Health. It was found, from the survey responses, that there was no significant effect of victim characteristics on the total cost of the accidents. The severity levels were found to be higher than those found in previous literature or adopted by local authorities which could be attributed to the economic conditions of Bahrain. Moreover, the weights found by both approaches were different from each other. Therefore, it is recommended to use the HCA approach due to its comprehensive calculations involving future costs.