Referenced below are a number of publications that relate to road safety audit.
In 1990 the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation published the first “Guidelines for the Safety Audit of Highways". A wealth of experience has been gained since then both in the UK and overseas. Britain led the way in developing road safety audit practice with approaches which have now been developed and adapted around the world, notably in Australia, New Zealand and Denmark.
In the UK, the need for Road Safety Audit of new highway schemes was implicit in the 1974 Road Traffic Act as part of the statutory duty placed on Local Authorities and was re-enforced by the 1988 Act.
Safety Audit requires the application of safety principles in the provision, improvement and maintenance of roads as a means of accident prevention. Road safety audit should therefore be an integral part of highway planning, design, construction and maintenance. To this end, there needs to be an explicit commitment to safety amongst politicians, top management and line managers in any highway commissioning, design or construction organisation, together with an awareness of the role and benefits of safety audit.
The second edition of the Institution’s Guidelines was published in 1996 with funding provided by 3M. It built on the recommendations contained in the Institution’s 1995 national “Review of Road Safety Audit Procedures". The edition described best practice as it had emerged at that time and made fresh recommendations for safety audit procedures, particularly in local authorities. The revised guidelines represented a comprehensive guide to “engineering out" potentially unsafe features in new road schemes, improvements to existing roads, traffic management schemes and major maintenance projects.
The edition went on to contain advice on the principles and issues of safety audit; the underlying concepts; the consequences of audit; procedures and practice; roles and responsibilities. It recommended a Code of Good Practice covering: managing safety audit; development-led schemes; selecting the teams; the safety audit brief; undertaking the audit; responding to recommendations from audits. The edition further detailed safety principles and sources of information; the follow-up to road safety audit; monitoring individual schemes; monitoring and evaluating procedures and practice; legal implications; the implications of the Health and Safety at Work Act and CDM Regulations; and the feedback from audits.
This document is available free for CIHT members to download here in the MyCIHT area of the website
The third edition of these Road Safety Audit Guidelines was produced following two initiatives in road safety and related fields. The revised UK Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) Road Safety Audit Standard HD 19/03 was produced in 2003, and the Manual for Streets (MfS) was produced in 2007 by the Department for Transport and the Department for Communities and Local Government. Both documents had significant consequences for Road Safety Audit, prompting the Institution to conduct a comprehensive review of the Guidelines under the editorial lead of Steve Proctor, TMS Consultancy.
These Guidelines therefore update previous editions with fresh advice, for example, on matters such as qualifications for Road Safety Auditors and on legal issues within Road Safety Audit.
In addition, this edition seeked to advise local highway authorities over ways in which they can appropriately resource a Road Safety Audit process relative to their own needs. It advises of those areas in which they may consider carrying out Road Safety Audits in a different way to that set out in HD19/03. It also importantly gives advice on how to respond to issues in the Manual for Streets (MfS), including how to work within a “Quality Audit” process for certain types of schemes covered by MfS.
This document is available free for CIHT members to download here in the MyCIHT area of the website
SoRSA members can now access Practice Notes approved by the SoRSA Committee as offering practical advice to our members on matters of common interest. The first of these practice notes concerns Professional Indemnity and Public Liability Insurance as these issues affect safety auditing practice. We are keen to hear your views on how useful you find these notes and what other topics you would like to see feature in future.
Professional indemnity and Public Liability insurance
Guidance Note - Appointing a Road Safety Audit Team - v3
Example Documents
GG104 Requirements for safety risk assessment *new
Quarterly newsletters from National Highways provides road safety auditors, designers, and other road safety professionals with updates on current road safety audit and other general road safety related issues, including a review of Road Safety Audit (RSA) reports.
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