Comparison of risk associated with an action and its cost, is not simple as risk and cost are not measured in the same units. The GB railway industry risk generally estimates in Fatalities and Weighted Injuries (FWI) per year. In order to make a comparison of risks with costs, the risk needs to be translated into a financial value. This is done using the industry ïValue of Preventing a Fatality’ (VPF), which is currently approximately £1.6 million per statistical fatality averted (DfT, 2004). Having made the risk and the sacrifice comparable how do we weight one against the other?
