Making a safer systems approach to road safety work.

In the lead up to Christmas I attended two events hosted by the Sydney Chapter of ACRS. The first was an insightful presentation by Jeanne Breen from the UK providing a commentary on progress with Vision Zero in Sweden, as well as road safety capability review techniques being used by the World Bank in rapidly developing and mechanising countries. A healthy and interesting debate ensued regarding some of the contemporaneous issues in Australia and how best we might overcome them.
This session was complemented a few weeks later by presentations from Dr Soames Job of RTA and Professor Raphael Grzebieta of University of NSW. Information was imparted regarding recent achievements in reducing the road toll and in securing positive road safety outcomes. The presenters provided their personal insights into the opportunities and challenges ahead in making further gains. Again, the need to keep moving forwards, through the implementation of a Safer Systems approach, came across as a common message.