Road Safety Audit procedures

Worldwide, the number of countries adopting Road Safety Audit procedures and practices is increasing, especially on schemes with external funding. 

Formal Road Safety Audit procedures have been developed in a number of countries, following the initiatives taken in the UK. 

Denmark and New Zealand and each of these countries produced detailed Road Safety Audit procedures. Since then, national and local governments in Canada, Finland, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Peru, Singapore and the United States have developed Road Safety Audit procedures. 

Chapter 7 of this book contains more information on international Road Safety Audit procedures. 

Many local authorities use the Standard together with the IHT Guidelines as a basis for carrying out their Road Safety Audits. However, some authorities have developed their own Road Safety Audit procedures to reflect local conditions and more specifically geared to their own particular needs. Transport for London has procedures for carrying out Road Safety Audits in the capitaL ... 

The National Roads Authority in Ireland introduced a comprehensive Road Safety Audit procedure and guidelines. Many local road authorities in the country have followed their lead in carrying out Road Safety Audits on local roads. 

Transfund New Zealand (2004). Road Safety Audit Procedures and Projects... 

A number of issues are currently being examined by Road Safety Auditors, clients and designers. This chapter of the book examines some of the issues that need to be addressed in the near future, and which may lead to changes in Road Safety Audit procedures in the UK. 

During the early 1990s, work was carried out in Australia, Denmark and New Zealand, and each of these countries has produced detailed Road Safety Audit procedures. 

Local Road Safety Audit procedures generally cover the following items ... 

Some local authorities have difficulties with the night-time visits due to issues of health and safety or related to overtime payments. The need for night-time visits at all Stage 3 Road Safety Audits is clearly stated in the Road Safety Audit standard. If a local authority does not undertake night-time visits on all schemes, it should describe the policy in a published Road Safety Audit procedure (see the references to the Transport for London, Hampshire County Council and Devon County Council procedures in Chapter 2). 

At present, a Road Safety Audit Certificate of Competency is only strictly needed to undertake Road Safety Audits on the motorway and trunk road network in the UK, on national roads in Ireland and on the TERN in other European countries. However, it seems likely that other clients will be seeking assurances about the qualifications of Road Safety Auditors in the future and could also require at least one member of the team to have a Certificate of Competency. In 2013, Solihull Borough Council introduced new Road Safety Audit procedures, adopting the principle that Road Safety Audit Teams would require members with a Certificate of Competency. However, they went a stage further than most other roads authorities had done to that point, insisting that all Team Members of the audit team hold the qualification. 

In order to defend a claim, the defendant authority wiU probably need to demonstrate that it has carried out the Road Safety Audit in line with industry standards. It may be possible to demonstrate that the Road Safety Audit had been carried out in line with a lesser standard , provided that it can be shown that the lesser standard has been prepared in accordance with a formal local policy drawn up to allocate scarce resources effectively. For this reason, local authorities are advised to examine the Road Safety Audit standard HD 19/15 and to decide which aspects they wish to adopt formally. They should then write local procedures explaining where and why they depart from the standard, and should have those procedures adopted by local politicians as a formal policy. Good advice on producing a local Road Safety Audit procedure is given in the Institution of Highways and Transportation s Road Safety Audit guidelines (IHT, 2008). 

The New Zealand Transport Agency updated its Road Safety Audit procedures to better embed the safe system approach in 2013. The procedure includes specific sections on the safe system , a risk assessment matrix that includes a focus on fatal and serious injuries, and an electronic report format for tracking audit responses. 

In South-East Asia, Malaysia has brought into operation Road Safety Audit procedures (Malaysian Public Works Department, 1997), and Singapore is starting to bring Road... 

Safety Audits into action as it develops and refines its road system. Hong Kong is also developing a Road Safety Audit procedure. 

Road Safety Audit guidelines and procedures were introduced in 2008 for internal roads by the Municipality of Abu Dhabi City (2008). In 2010, the Abu Dhabi Government produced Road Safety Audit Procedures for Main Roads (Abu Dhabi Department of Transport, 2010). Both procedures were based on a combination of guidance taken from the UK and the USA, and require practising Road Safety Auditors to meet minimum training and experience requirements similar to those outlined in the UK s Safety Audit standard. 

Oman currently has no published Road Safety Audit procedures. Road safety inspections and colhsion investigations are carried out by Petroleum Development Oman, working in partnership with the Oman Ministry of Transport. 

Abu Dhabi Department of Transport (2010) Road Safety Audit Procedures for Main Roads. Abu Dhabi Government, United Arab Emirates. 

Road Safety Audit procedures in the Netherlands require the audit team to ascribe a severity class to each safety problem raised (see the next section for more on risk assessment) the severity classes are defined in Table 10.1. The severity class is used by the Project Sponsor to assist in prioritising the audit team s findings. 

Road Safety Audit procedures for new developments References... 

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