Ethiopia has a relatively high number of fatalities due to road traffic injuries per number ofrnvehicles as compared to many countries in the world, with a death rate of 80 per 10,000 vehicles.rnBased on reports from Federal Police Commission, more than 94% of road traffic injuries inrnEthiopia occur due to motor vehicle crashes and 60% of road traffic crashes in the country arernreported from Addis Ababa. This study aimed to estimate the health and life related burden ofrnmotor vehicle injuries that occurred in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia during the year 2001 EFY. Thernstudy was conducted from February to June 2010 in six hospitals of the metropolis. It wasrndesigned as prevalence based cost -of- illness study from a societal perspective. A retrospectiverndescriptive study was conducted to capture costs incurred by motor vehicle injuries in AddisrnAbaba in 2001 EFY. Multi-stage cluster sampling technique was used to select 364 studyrnsubjects. The total health and life-related cost of motor vehicle injuries in Addis Ababa wasrnestimated to be 31,692,892 birr. Out of this, the indirect and direct costs were 20, 608, 801 andrn11,084,091 birr respectively. In conclusion, the enormous health and life related burden causedrnby motor vehicle injuries implies that such injuries are health problems of economic importancerndemanding more attention from health planners and policy makers. The health sector shouldrncollaborate with other agencies in the prevention of motor vehicle injuries so as to reduce thernimmense economic burden it inflicts on health services.