The annual research, produced by the Ministry of Transport, quantifies the cost of all injury and death crashes on New Zealand’s roads.
The social cost - 91% of which is accounted for in loss of life and loss of quality of life due to injury — in Otago and Southland for 2015 was up 3.65% on the year prior.
The research’s release follows news the road toll in the South for the first quarter of 2017 is the worst since 1995 and last year’s provisional road toll is the worst since 2001.
In 2015, 26 people died on Southern roads with 18 dying in Otago and eight in Southland. Last year, 36 people died on Southern roads and 13 have already died in the first three months of this year.
The Ministry of Transport’s "Social cost of road crashes and injuries 2016 update" report showed the greatest social cost came from open roads.
Crashes on Otago’s open roads caused $146 million in social harm, while crashes on urban roads totalled $98million.
In Southland, open road crashes caused $91 million in social harm and $34 million on urban roads.
Nationally, injury crashes caused $3.79 billion in social harm in 2015, up from $3.53 billion the year prior.
Associate Transport Minister David Bennett said the research highlighted the hidden cost of road crashes, but "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.
"Over 300 New Zealanders lost their lives on New Zealand roads last year, and about 2500 were seriously injured.
"The sad thing is that many of these crashes were avoidable. In 40% 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."
