In Estonia, the methods for evaluation of road accident costs were developed in 1995 and reviewed in 1997 and a third version is currently specified. The methods were prepared on the basis of an analysis of related EU methods made in 1994 (COST 313). The paper addresses these calculations methods. Differences due to the special features of Estonia and the development in the 1990s is pointed out. It is concluded that in 1998 the estimated cost of road accidents was 190 million USD. This is 12 per cent of the state budget and 3.6 per cent of gross domestic product. The costs related to road accidents exceed the investments in the road sector by more than three times.