Slides-roadLeg-safeSystems Road safety.pdf

Road safety

1. 1
A Safe System Approach to Road
Safety
Presented by Evelyn Murphy, JD, MPL
Content developed by Tami Toroyan

2. 2
Learning objectives
•At the end of this lesson, the learner should be able to:
•Explain the need for a holistic approach to road safety
•Discuss the concept and principle behind the Safe System approach
•Describe the need for a multisectoral approach to road traffic injury prevention
•Identify key organisations involved in road safety in your country and describe
their roles, particularly as they relate to legislation

3. 3
A holistic approach to road safety
•Road traffic injuries (RTIs) take place
in a wide range of contexts and have
multiple causes
•A multidimensional approach is
needed to apply the multiple relevant
solutions
•Safe transport needs safe roads, safe
vehicles, and safe road users
•Measures are needed to minimise the
consequences of crashes
•Good post-crash care
•For this to work well, we need the
involvement of:
•Health sector
•Police
•Transport designers, etc.

4. 4
Principles of a Safe System approach—1
•Several different approaches have been applied to road safety
•Our focus is on the Safe System approach
•The Safe System approach reflects a holistic view of the combined factors
involved in road safety
•This is the approach taken by a number of countries that are considered “high
performers” in terms of road safety

5. 5
Principles of a Safe System approach—2
•A Safe System protects responsible road users from death and serious injury by
taking human error and frailty into account
•In other words, it acknowledges that humans will make mistakes on the road,
but the price they pay for this mistake should not be death or serious injury
•The Safe System approach has four essential elements:
1.Compliant road users
2.Safe roads and roadsides
3.Safe speeds
4.Safe vehicles

6. 6
Principles of a Safe System approach—3
•Speed is at the heart of the Safe System approach
•Speed management is a core feature of the Safe System approach
•Human tolerances need to be considered in the setting of speed limits so that,
in the event of a crash, the chances of road users being killed or seriously
injured are minimized

7. 7
Principles of a Safe System approach—4
•Responsibility for road safety is shared by those designing the road transport
system andthe road user
•Designers are always ultimately responsible for the design, operation, and
use of the road transport system
•Road users are responsible for following the rules set by designers
•If road users fail to obey the rules, or if injuries occur, the system designers
are required to take the necessary steps to prevent people from being killed or
seriously injured

8. 8
Safe Systems approach is multisectoral
•A Safe System approach is
appropriate for countries at
all levels of road safety
policy development
Source: 1.

9. 9
Vision Zero: an example of a Safe System approach—1
•Countries with different levels of performance will have different ambitions in
terms of road safety improvement
•Sweden is among those countries with the lowest number of traffic fatalities in
relation to its population
•Despite this excellent record,in 1997 the Swedish Parliament introduced a
“Vision Zero” policy that requires that fatalities and serious injuries be reduced
to zero by 2020

10. 10
Vision Zero: an example of a Safe System approach—2
•Swedish road safety work is based on a refusal to accept human deaths or
lifelong suffering as a result of road traffic
•The responsibility for fatalities in the road system is assigned to the failure of the
road system rather than the road user

11. 11
Summary
•A Safe System approach aims for a more forgiving road system that takes human
frailty and vulnerability into account
•Road system designers are ultimately responsible for ensuring safe roads
•Under a Safe System, the whole transport system is designed to:
•Forgive human error
•Minimize risk when road users make mistakes
•Protect people from death and serious injury

12. End of lesson