Reducing the Death Toll of Road Accidents in Costa Rica through the Introduction of Roadworthiness Inspections by the Government
27 Pages Posted: 16 Jul 2019 Last revised: 18 Jul 2019
Date Written: July 15, 2019
Abstract
This paper investigates the effects on traffic safety and the associated economic savings of the introduction of RITEVE, the Periodical Technical Inspections (PTI) in Costa Rica. Since there were no national estimates for the costs of crashes in Costa Rica available, this study derives and evaluates in a first step different ways to estimate these costs. Subsequently these are used for a cost-benefit analysis to bench-mark the policy decision to introduce periodical technical inspections. The findings show that there are considerable economic gains from having such a system in place with high cost-benefit ratios. The study shall give insights and encourage other countries to introduce or consider such measures as they can be an important step toward more road safety and reduce the cost of crashes for society and the economy.
Keywords: periodic technical inspection; Costa Rica; cost-benefit analysis; policy; cost-unit rates
JEL Classification: D61, D78, L51, R41
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation