Road Safety Risk Manager – software to prioritise, manage and track safety on your network

The management of the road network to provide safe road transport is a key performance indicator for all road authorities. Its importance has been amplified by the High Court s decision that removed immunity from road authorities where an unknown deficiency on the road network may have contributed to the occurrence of a road crash or its severity. The judgement, however, recognises that duty of care does not mean that a road must be in a perfect state of repair. The key issue for road authorities is that they need to be aware of the condition of the road network, and that they should act reasonably. The factors that need to be considered by road authorities in the management of their road network relate to:
– the availability of funds
– the condition of the road network ” the need to assign priorities to projects
– the need to manage outstanding road safety issues on the road network
– ensuring that reasonable steps are taken in a reasonable time to correct and road deficiencies that may have been identified.

Significant levels of expenditure are dedicated to improving the safety of road infrastructure using engineering countermeasures. Most authorities implement a range of initiatives to improve road safety. The challenge faced by asset managers is where to direct funding so that the maximum road safety trauma reductions are achieved and the risks associated with road use are minimised.

1 When road safety concerns have been identified the authority requires a systematic method to prioritise the treatments identified. A difficulty facing many authorities is that available budget provisions will often not allow for the completion of all the outstanding issues. The challenge for a road authority therefore is to plan, manage and take action to maximise the road safety return from the budget.