DECCAN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY

(A Unit of Deccan Group of Institutions)

A Self-Financed Muslim Minority Institution Established by Dar-us-salam Educational Trust
Approved by AICTE, New Delhi & Affiliated to Osmania University
Dar-us-salam, Aghapura, Hyderabad-500 001 (T.S.)

DEPT. OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

IV-YEAR|VIII-SEM|CSE-A & B(2024-2025)
SUBJECT: ESSENTIALS OF ROAD SAFETY ENGINEERING(OE805CE)

Unit -III

ROAD SAFETY AUDIT

Road Safety Audit (RSA) is a review of a project to assess and identify the safety concerns
of road users. In this process, emphasis is laid on improving safety for vulnerable road
users such as pedestrians and cyclists.
RSA can be carried out in the following cases:
• To evaluate the safety of an existing road or an infrastructure.

• To identify the safety concerns of a proposed infrastructure during the planning,

design and implementation stages.
• Road Safety Audits (RSA) are essential for improvement of road safety and
prevention of accidents. Audits are required at all stages, be it feasibility, design,
construction or pre-opening. Audits are also to be carried out on existing NHs and
for improvement projects.

• A key feature of a road safety audit is the use of a team of professionals with varied
expertise. The team should include highway safety engineers, highway design
engineers, maintenance personnel, and law enforcement. Additional specialties
should be added to the team as needed. The team members must not be involved in
the design or maintenance of the facility being examined, so that they can have an
objective point of view.

• The road safety audit may investigate general safety conditions, or it may focus on
specific concerns or users. Walkability audits concentrate on pedestrian safety and
accommodation, and transit audits focus on safety of bus and train users. The New
York State Department of Transportation's Safety Appurtenance Program
 (SAFETAP) uses audit techniques to make simple but effective safety improvements
in conjunction with road resurfacing projects. This helps prevent increases in crashes
that sometimes occur due to increased driving speeds after road resurfacing.

Audits attempt to avoid some of the limitations inherent to any crash history scoring
system. Some of these limitations are:

• Reactive systems require waiting until crashes have already occurred, possibly with
resulting injuries and fatalities.

• Crash frequencies are subject to regression toward the mean. It can be hard to
determine whether good or poor short-term safety performance is due to
 the inherent safety or hazards of the site, or random variation. Sites with high or low
crash rates are likely to move towards the mean as a matter of course, even if nothing
changes.

• Most existing procedures focus on sites that have experienced the most accidents,
which may or may not be the sites that could benefit most from a safety
improvement.

• Reactive systems are limited by the quality and timeliness of the data entered into
them. Deficiencies in crash reporting limit the effectiveness of these systems

• If historical crash data are available, the audit team should make use of them.
However, one of the strengths of the audit process is it can find safety concerns
before they contribute to crashes. Lack of data is a reason to use the audit process,
rather than an excuse not to.
The Safe System

• The safe system approach system acknowledges that the human body is vulnerable
and needs protecting.

• The focus is on protecting people so that if they are involved in a crash, they won’t
be killed or seriously injured, no matter how they travel (walk, drive, ride, cycle).

• Importantly, the safe system approach changes the focus from blaming those who
use the roads to viewing the road transport system as a whole, where the
responsibility for reducing risk is shared by road users and those who design,
maintain and operate all parts of the road transport system.

• This approach does not ignore risk taking behaviour, but acknowledges human
fallibility and the need for greater allowances for human error.

• Planning and developing a safe system means looking beyond the standards and
towards systematically planning and designing a sustainable and inherently safe road
and transport system for all road users.

Local Government and the Safe System

• As system designers within the safe system framework, Local Governments have a
strategic and operational road safety role as road managers, planning authorities and
fleet managers, in addition to their community development and leadership roles.

• Local Governments are crucial partners in the translation of safe system principles
into practice, and WALGA is in a strong position to positively influence and work
with the sector to build support and local capacity that contributes to the collective
road safety effort.

Safe System Guiding Principles

Creating a safe system depends heavily on understanding and implementing these guiding
principles:

• The limits of human performance: we all make mistakes and we all need to
acknowledge the limits of our capabilities.

• The physical limits of human tolerance to violent forces: we are physically

vulnerable when involved in a traffic crash.

• Shared responsibility: this means all of us take an individual and shared role in road
safety.

• A forgiving road system: so that when crashes do happen, deaths can be avoided and
injuries minimised.

• Increased use of public transport.

• Essentially, the principles provide direction and context with which to formulate
strategies, plans and activities to improve road safety outcomes consistent with
international best practice. The principles build on past experience, work to add
value to future activities and offer guidance to Local Governments in pursuit of
innovation and effectiveness in the way they manage road safety.
Incident Management process
 Incident management process is designed to facilitate interagency communication and
help transportation officials coordinate response activities so that traffic flow is restored
to normal as soon as possible.
Description/Objective
Emergency/incident Management is normally handled through the CAD/AVM system. In
general, the strategies for emergency/incident management are developed at a broader
organisational level, and involve many stakeholders including the CAD/AVM system.
Emergency/incidents can be clustered in three levels, which have differing levels of response:
• Individual vehicle or location
• Impacting only the public transport services
• Impacting the urban area and utilities, of which public transport is one
Emergency/incidents cover the following scenarios:
• Breakdown of vehicle or collision, requiring technical assistance or replacement
• Collision, illness or other non-criminal incident requiring medical support
• Assault, aggressive or security incident, requiring police/security response
• Pre-advised diversion or restriction due to road construction/repairs or other cause
• Unplanned diversion or restriction
• Weather-related events and restrictions
• Events, requiring diversions and/or additional services
For the most part, when such incidents occur, the Operations Management is achieved through
the CAD/AVM system, and the Route Condition Monitoring and Schedule Adherence
applications as described above. Procedures are developed for various incident types, and
activated as required.
Specific ITS supports for emergency/incident management include:
• Alarm/alert initiated by the driver. This can override the normal communication
protocols and get priority alert to the dispatcher.
• For known disruptions (e.g. planned road work, events) temporary route diversions,
temporary schedules and adjusted sectional running times can be pre-programmed
into the CAD/AVM system and activated for the period of the works

Intelligent transportation system

• An intelligent transportation system (ITS) is an advanced application which aims to
provide innovative services relating to different modes of transport and traffic
management and enable users to be better informed and make safer, more
coordinated, and 'smarter' use of transport networks.
Traffic Management Systems for Safety

• The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is testing a new system, which
will tell authorities if a vehicle has valid registration, pollution certificates and other
documents. The new system is called Advanced Traffic Management System
(ATMS) and all the expressways i

• n the country will soon be integrated into it.

• The ATMS will be linked to the vehicle database of the transport department
(RTOs).

• In order to achieve a significant improvement in road safety, the Government of

India is committed to:
 • Raise Awareness about Road Safety Issues

The Government would increase its efforts to promote awareness about the various aspects
of road safety, the social and economic implications of road accidents and what needs to
be done to curb the rising menace of road accidents. This would enable and empower the
different stakeholders to play a meaningful role in promoting road safety.

• Establish a Road Safety Information Database

The Government will provide assistance to local bodies, Union Territories and States to
improve the quality of crash investigation and of data collection, transmission and analysis.
A National Road Safety Information System will be established for providing continuity
and policy guidelines to this activity.

Ensure Safer Road Infrastructure

The Government will take measures to review standards pertaining to safety in the
design of rural and urban roads and bring them in consonance with international best
practices keeping in view Indian traffic conditions. Continuing application of
Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) under a national framework to establish a safe
and efficient transport system will be encouraged.

Safer Vehicles

• The Government will take steps to ensure that safety features are built in at the stage
of design, manufacture, usage, operation and maintenance of both motorized and
non-motorized vehicles in line with international standards and practices in order to
minimize adverse safety and environmental effects of vehicle operation on road
users (including pedestrians and bicyclists) and infrastructure.
Safer Drivers

• The Government will strengthen the system of driver licensing and training to improve
the competence and capability of drivers.

Ensure Safer Road Infrastructure

• The Government will take measures to review standards pertaining to safety in the
design of rural and urban roads and bring them in consonance with international best
practices keeping in view Indian traffic conditions. Continuing application of
Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)

Safety of Vulnerable Road Users

The design and construction of all road facilities (rural and urban) will take into
account the needs of non-motorized transport and the vulnerable and physically
challenged in an appropriate manner. The Government will seek to disseminate ‘best
practices’ in this regard to town planners, architects, and highway and traffic
engineers.National framework to establish a safe and efficient transport system will
be encouraged.

Road Traffic Safety Education and Training

Road safety knowledge and awareness will be created amongst the population
through education, training and publicity campaigns. Road safety education will also
focus on school children and college going students, while road safety publicity
campaigns will be used to propagate good road safety practices among the
community. The Government will encourage all professionals associated with road
 design, road construction, road network management, traffic management and law
enforcement to attain adequate knowledge of road safety issues.

Enforcement of Safety Laws

The Government will take appropriate measures to assist various state and other
governments to strengthen and improve the quality of enforcement in order to ensure
effective and uniform implementation of safety laws. The Government will actively
encourage the establishment and strengthening of highway Patrolling on National
and State Highways in cooperation with State Governments and Union Territories
as appropriate.

Emergency Medical Services for Road Accidents

The Government will strive to ensure that all persons involved in road accidents
benefit from speedy and effective trauma care and management. The essential
functions of such a service would include the provision of rescue operation and
administration of first aid at the site of an accident and the transport of the victim
from accident site to nearby hospital. Hospitals alongside the National Highways
and State Highways would be adequately equipped to provide for trauma care and
rehabilitation.

HRD & Research for Road Safety

The Government will encourage increased activity in programmes of road safety

research by identifying priority areas, funding research in those areas adequately and
establishing centers of excellence in research and academic institutions. The
Government will facilitate dissemination of the result of research and identified
 examples of good practices through publication, training, conferences, workshops
and websites.

• Strengthening Enabling Legal, Institutional and Financial Environment for Road

Safety