Safety, traffic accountability

There is no meaning to use the total number of fatalities or injuries to compare the safety problem in ASEAN countries, due to wide differences in population and motorisation in these countries. Measures of risk are essential in comparing different countries and studying the development of the road safety situation. Therefore, numbers of deaths have to be translated into measurable indicators that take road usage and exposure to accidents into account. The two general indicators of death rates relevant to our comparisons are traffic risk (fatalities per vehicles) and personal risk (fatalities per... 

An important consideration for the process chain is that traffic accidents are statistically rare events and that each accident is a unique event (see Chap. 1). Detailed accident data are available in various databases and are very helpful in determining the potential of safety measures. However, critical traffic situations or near-accidents are not included in any representative databases. Field Operational Tests, like eu-roFOT [22], or Naturalistic Driving Studies, like the 100-Car Naturalistic Driving Study [23], collect data of such events, but often lack representativity for the traffic system as a whole. A possible solution can be provided, for example, by methods such as fault-tree analysis (see [24, 25]) and stochastic simulation. The simulation described in the following is a stochastic simulation, as many of the subprocesses involved include distributed parameters, which are hard to account for, e.g., in a fault-tree analysis. 

This is clearly a complex area, and it is perhaps not surprising that very little routine analysis to take account of regression to the mean has been carried out by UK local authorities when monitoring the results of their safety schemes. One method suggested involves the use of matched pair controls, where for each treated location, an identical non-treated location is selected and monitored. There are two problems with this approach. First, it is almost impossible to find a matched pair, in terms of identical layout, traffic flows, traffic mix, accident pattern and frequency. Second, even if it were possible to do this, there could be serious legal implications of leaving locations with identified accident problems untreated. 

This section has been added outside the NEBOSH certificate because it is an important area of concern recently given more prominence by the UK s HSE. It has been estimated that up to a third of all road traffic accidents involve somebody who is at work at the time. This may account for over 20 fatalities and 250 serious injuries every week. Some employers believe, incorrectly, that if they comply with certain road traffic law requirements, so that company vehicles have a valid MOT certificate, and drivers hold a valid licence, this is enough to ensure the safety of their employees, and others, when... 

Insufficient durability sometimes presents real danger to the safety of structures, but its main influence is on the economy, because it considerably increases the cost of the infrastructure. Besides, various inconveniences appear for society due to additional work during exploitation disturbances for traffic, etc. These costs also should be taken into account when investments are planned. 

Taking into account the actual and future environmental conditions, the consequence on structural safety, economic aspects and other conditions (e.g. traffic), the basic strategy for repair can be chosen as outlined in RILEM, 1994 ... 

Determination of transitions to the state of a serious accident has been based on the assumption of necessary prior occurrence of a human error (a train driver s or traffic orderly s). States belonging to the layers of improper use of the system constitute a set of safety risk states. In contrast, the states of partial faultiness in this layer constitute states of a direct threat to safety (this applies to the states taking into account human errors). 

These undesirable events can have various consequences, such as, fatalities and injuries to people, fires in nearby locations, disruptions in local vehicle traffic, loss of company image, financial loss, the local population being afraid (on account of the uncertainty of when and where an underground vault will explode), loss of reliability and safety and other consequences which cannot be measured financially (Garcez Almeida, 2014 Garcez Almeida, 2013). 

The role of the tunnel operator is a critical factor that many tunnel users do not take into account. The tunnel users should be informed that many of the tunnels safety systems and signs are controlled by an operator, and they should at any time follow the operator s instructions. When information or instruction are being provided through the tunnel s radio frequency, the tunnel s loudspeakers or there is a change in traffic lights, variable speed limit signs or the tunnel s closure system, the tunnel users should respond without hesitation (Papaioannou Georgiou, 2003). 

ABSTRACT Retention levels of road safety barriers are specified on the basis of risk assessment taking into account accidental data and further information available in the Czech Republic and also selected recommendations of Road Safety Association PIARC. The method of Bayesian networks is applied in the analysis and compared with event tree method. Newly proposed classes of retention for several categories of road surroundings considering the intensity of heavy traffic and two levels of hazard situation are incorporated to the revision of national prescriptive document that is expected to enhance the road safety. 

There is often an absence of a central organization that has responsibility, authority, and accountability for highway safety. For example, in Israel a National Authority for Road Safety is supposed to coordinate all safety-related activities, but it has no authority over safety-related activities of the Ministry of Education, the National Traffic Police, the licensing administration, or the Ministry of Health. In the U.S. the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was created in 1966 to improve traffic safety but the implementation of its recommended driver behavior and improvement programs is determined by the 50 individual states. Such decentralized safety systems lead to multiple uncoordinated efforts without a structured quality control process. In particular, by dissociating responsibility, authority, and accountability from each other motivation to evaluate and improve performance quickly dissipates. 

In comparison with other European countries Poland s traffic fatality risk rates still remain on very high levels. These last few years, the number of fatalities was around 3,500, and the mortality rate reached about nine killed per 100,000 of the population, which places Poland in a very bad position in Europe. This situation shows a strong need for intensified systemic and preventive work, which aiso prevails in the field of road safety analysis. The objective of this paper is to describe the models that have been developed for analyzing the short-term changes in the aggregate number of fatalities in Poland, measured on a monthly basis between 1998 and 2012. The models account for the influence of economic conditions on the level of road mortality. 

Motorcyclists account for 16% of fatalities, which is much higher than their contribution to traffic [CAR 09]. While some projects have considered VRUs from a safety viewpoint, they often aimed at avoiding or mitigating accidents with VRUs by equipping the vehicle and infrastracture. In the vehicle - infrastmcture - human approach of ITS research, VRUs and their needs are not an active part of the human element in the ITS approach. 

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