New Zealand's road crash costs rise to $3.79b

In 2015 40 per cent of New Zealand's road accidents had factors that were preventable. Photo / File

The social cost of accidents on our roads rose to $3.79b over 2015.

The just-released figures from the Ministry of Transport are an increase from 2014, when the cost was $3.53b.

The social cost of each fatality is calculated as costing $4.7m, while a serious crash is $912,000, and a minor crash is $99,000.

Ministry of Transport calculates the figure by including reduced quality of life, reduced productivity, medical, and other resource costs.

Associate Transport Minister David Bennett said it showed the hidden cost of accidents on our roads.

"Putting a value on a life lost or permanently altered is impossible.

"This report shows that on top of the high price paid by friends, families, and communities, each and every crash has serious social and economic consequences for all of us."

Bennett said the sad part was that many of the 2015 crashes were avoidable.

"In 40 per cent of the crashes where people were killed or seriously injured, the driver had drunk more than the legal limit of alcohol, was driving too fast for the conditions, or people in the vehicles weren't wearing a seatbelt."

Loss of life and loss of quality of life because of permanent impairment, made up 91 per cent of the total social cost.

Vehicle damage was five per cent of the total cost.