Scottish Government

APPENDIX G: ADDITIONAL MATERIAL ON WIDER COSTS - COSTS OF ACCIDENTS

G.1 Overview

This Appendix, which supports Section 9, provides additional information on the costs associated with three types of accidents that can occur as a consequence of alcohol misuse:

• Fires (both house fires and fires associated with road traffic accidents ( RTAs));
• RTAs;
• Homicide.

The analysis includes estimations of the costs associated with premature mortality resulting from such alcohol-related accidents.

G.2 Costs Associated with Alcohol-Related House Fires and Road Traffic Accidents

A link between alcohol consumption and accidents has long been established. A retrospective review of coroners' records (Bedford, 2006) carried out in three counties in Ireland and relating to all cases where a person died as a result of injury or suicide in 2001 and 2002 found that alcohol was detected in about half of the accidental deaths. Key points include:

• Of the 55 individuals who died as a result of road traffic accidents ( RTAs), 22 (40%) had blood alcohol contents ( BACs) ranging from 16mg/100ml to 325 mg/100ml.
• Persons aged less than 30 years were more likely to have alcohol in their blood.

The costs of accidents in terms of morbidity and use of ambulance service resources have been accounted for within the estimates of alcohol-related NHS costs ( Section 5). It has not been possible to determine reasonable estimates of the costs of accidents in terms of Police service time.

a) Costs of Fire Services

Fire Service expenditure in Scotland in 2007/08 is shown in Table G.1.

Table G.1: Fire Service Expenditure (2007/08)

Source: Scottish Government, LFR03, Annex F ( http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/933/0080398.xls)

Fire services incur costs due to two types of alcohol-related fires:

• House fires;
• Road Traffic Accidents requiring attendance by one or more fire engines.

Costs of Alcohol-Related House Fires

Fire service resource use relating to the costs of alcohol-related house fires in which there were fatalities is considered below. A study of 535 fatal UK Fire Investigation Reports (Department for Communities and Local Government, 2006) showed for house fires that:

• Alcohol was cited as a cause of the fire in 135 (25%) and as a factor effecting response to a fire in 137 (26%) of cases;
• The victim was impaired by alcohol in 178 fires (33%);
• Alcohol use was often associated with fires at weekends and during the night.

The limited availability of Scottish data means that it has not been possible to estimate the total cost to the fire service of attending a house fire associated with alcohol misuse. However, an estimated 62 people died in 58 house fires in Scotland during 2007/08. Misuse of alcohol was a direct contributory factor in 16 (27.6%) and an indirect factor in 8 (13.8%) of these fires. (Her Majesty's Fire Service Inspectorate for Scotland, 2008). An Office of the Deputy Prime Minister report entitled The Economic Cost of Fire: Estimates for 2004 (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2006) published estimates for the average cost of a domestic fire. These figures and uplifted values for 2007 ⁹³ are shown in Table G.2.

Table G.2: Estimates for the economic cost of fire

Source: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2006 - Annex A.

Table G.3 shows an estimate of £664,704 for the 2007 cost of the 24 house fires in which misuse of alcohol was a direct or an indirect factor. This includes a response cost of £82,416. It should be noted that these costs do not appear to include any estimate of the cost of premature mortality.

Table G.3: Estimated cost of house fires in Scotland in which alcohol was a direct or an indirect factor

Costs of Fire Service Response to Alcohol-Related Road Traffic Accidents

Data in the HMCIFS Annual Report 2007-08 (Her Majesty's Fire Services Inspectorate for Scotland, 2008) indicates that RTAs accounted for 3% of Scottish fire brigade activity (3,510 incidents) in 2007/08. The eight Scottish fire brigades do not collect information on the number of RTAs caused by drink driving that they attend.

Figures for the number of accidents involving drivers/riders with illegal alcohol levels resulting in casualties are not currently available for 2007. However, in 2006 there were a total of 13,109 reported 'injury road accidents' ⁹⁴ (Scottish Government, 2007) and 720 (5.5%) of these involved drivers/riders with illegal alcohol levels (Scottish Government, 2009g). Assuming that 5.5% of road incidents attended by the Fire Service were alcohol-related and also that the Fire Service expenditure on fire fighting and rescue and on fire fighters' pensions can be split evenly between each incident attended, then the estimated cost is £495,462 ( i.e. 5.5% of 3% of £300,280,000). This figure rises to £510,857 if all Fire Service expenditure (as shown in Table G.1) is included in the calculations.

b) Costs of Premature Mortality arising from Alcohol-Related Fires and RTAs

Estimates of the costs associated with premature mortality resulting from alcohol-related house fires and RTAs are also considered.

The cost of premature mortality arising from house fires and RTAs can be estimated using Department for Transport estimates for the average value of preventing a road traffic fatality. These estimates are shown in Table G.4.

Table G.4: Department for Transport Estimates for the Average Value of Preventing a Road Traffic Fatality

Source: Department for Transport, 2007.

In relation to house fires, 24 people died in fires in which alcohol misuse was either a direct or an indirect factor (Her Majesty's Fire Service Inspectorate for Scotland, 2008). Using the Department of Transport costs in Table G.4, the associated premature mortality costs can be estimated at £36,269,592.

Scottish statistics (Scottish Government, 2009g) report that in 2006 ⁹⁵ there were 30 fatalities as a result of accidents involving drivers/riders with illegal alcohol levels. This figure includes fatalities of drivers, passengers and pedestrians in accidents where at least one individual was drunk. If the estimation of the premature mortality cost is based on the total number of such fatalities, there is likely to be a degree of double counting with premature mortality costs calculated elsewhere in this report. However, in the absence of knowing the number of these fatalities who were not themselves under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident, the associated cost estimate has been calculated based on the total number of fatalities. Using the Department for Transport costs for the average value of preventing a road traffic fatality (as shown in Table G.4), the associated premature mortality costs can be estimated at £45,336,990.

G.3 Homicides and Premature Mortality

The publication Homicide in Scotland, 2007-08 (Scottish Government, 2008f) indicates that 148 persons were identified and accused of homicide in this year. Additionally, there were 114 deaths recorded by the police as homicide during the year. The drink/drug status of the 148 persons accused in homicide cases is shown in Table G.5.

Table G.5: Drink/drug status of persons accused in homicide cases in 2007/08

Source: Scottish Government, 2008.

If it is assumed that in all cases where drink/drug status is unknown the accused was not under the influence of drink and if it is also assumed that in all cases where the accused was under the influence of drink the homicide incident involved one victim and one perpetrator, then a cost in terms of premature mortality for homicide victims can be estimated. Information on the age and sex of homicide victims in 2007/08 is included in Homicide in Scotland, 2007/08 (Scottish Government, 2008f). Using these data, a discount rate of 3.5%, and assuming a life expectancy of 75 years, the cost in terms of premature mortality for homicide victims has been estimated based on the value of a life year being £30,000 or £50,000 (see Section 10 for further discussion of the derivation of these values).

Under these assumptions, the cost in terms of alcohol-related premature mortality for homicide victims can be estimated to be between £25 million and £42 million, as shown in Table G.6.

Table G.6: Costs arising from premature death brought about through homicide

Source: Scottish Government, 2008f.