NS contributes to safety in society by providing safe transport and a safe environment for its passengers and employees. We constantly work to guarantee occupational safety, personal safety and safe travel.
The social costs of occupational safety (accidents at work) in 2020 were €20 million (2019: €15 million). The social costs of personal safety (or lack of personal safety) in 2020 were approximately €10 million, more or less the same as in 2019.
To provide safe travel, NS is working with its partners on preventing collisions, derailments and unsafe situations at the stations. In 2020, the social costs of unsafe situations amounted to approximately €6 million. The number of traffic accidents in the first and last mile is much higher, and so is their impact, which in 2020 amounted to approximately €48 million (2019: €117 million).
Rail travel train is relatively safe compared to transport by car. We calculate this positive impact by determining the number of avoided accidents. To that end, we calculate how many more accidents would have happened if all our elective passengers had travelled by car instead of by train. In 2020, the social benefits of safe transport by train were approximately €278 million (2019: €629 million).