Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the cost is of road traffic accidents in the UK where poor visual acuity was a contributory factor in each year since 2010.

The total costs of reported road accidents in which "uncorrected or defective eyesight" was reported as a contributory factor by a police officer attending the scene of the accident, in each of year since 2010 for Great Britain, are as follows:

2010: £18.5m

2011: £29.7m

2012: £26.3m

2013: £29.4m

The Department does not collect information on specific conditions such as "visual acuity", but it is likely to be captured by the broader contributory factor above.

These costs have been calculated using the values for prevented casualties and accidents given in tables A4.1.1 and A4.1.3 of the TAG data book (www.gov.uk/government/publications/webtag-tag-data-book-may-2014) which are used in the valuation of accident impacts in infrastructure investment and relevant policy business cases. They include the human costs of casualties and fatalities, lost economic output and other factors such as police, ambulance and medical costs but do not include any costs relating to delays arising from accidents. All the costs are given in 2010 prices.