A safe system-based approach to selection of clear zones, safety barriers and other roadside treatments

On average, 560 fatal run-off-road crashes occur annually in Australia and 135 in New Zealand. In addition, there are more than 14,000 run-off-road crashes causing injuries each year across both countries. In rural areas, run-off-road casualty crashes constitute 50-60% of all casualty crashes. Their severity is particularly high with more than half of those involved sustaining fatal or serious injuries. This paper reviews the existing approach to roadside hazard risk assessment, selection of clear zones and hazard treatments. It proposes a modified approach to roadside safety evaluation and management. It is a methodology based on statistical modelling of run-off-road casualty crashes, and application of locally developed crash modification factors and severity indices. Clear zones, safety barriers and other roadside design/treatment options are evaluated with a view to minimise fatal and serious injuries – the key Safe System objective. The paper concludes with a practical demonstration of the proposed approach. The paper is based on findings from a four-year Austroads research project into improving roadside safety in the Safe System context.

Cuckoo: a Language for Implementing Memory- and Thread-safe System Services

This paper is centered around the design of a thread- and memory-safe language, primarily for the compilation of application-specific services for extensible operating systems. We describe various issues that have influenced the design of our language, called Cuckoo, that guarantees safety of programs with potentially asynchronous flows of control. Comparisons are drawn between Cuckoo and related software safety techniques, including Cyclone and software-based fault isolation (SFI), and performance results suggest our prototype compiler is capable of generating safe code that executes with low runtime overheads, even without potential code optimizations. Compared to Cyclone, Cuckoo is able to safely guard accesses to memory when programs are multithreaded. Similarly, Cuckoo is capable of enforcing memory safety in situations that are potentially troublesome for techniques such as SFI.

Effect of clear zone widths on run-off-road crash outcomes

Current guidelines on clear zone selection and roadside hazard management adopt the US approach based on the likelihood of roadside encroachment by drivers. This approach is based on the available research conducted in the 1960s and 70s. Over time, questions have been raised regarding the robustness and applicability of this research in Australasia in 2010 and in the Safe System context. This paper presents a review of the fundamental research relating to selection of clear zones. Results of extensive rural highway statistical data modelling suggest that a significant proportion of run-off-road to the left casualty crashes occurs in clear zones exceeding 13 m. They also show that the risk of run-off-road to the left casualty crashes was 21% lower where clear zones exceeded 8 m when compared with clear zones in the 4 – 8 m range. The paper discusses a possible approach to selection of clear zones based on managing crash outcomes, rather than on the likelihood of roadside encroachment which is the basis for the current practice. It is expected that this approach would encourage selection of clear zones wider than 8 m when the combination of other road features suggests higher than average casualty crash risk.

Bicycle helmet research : CARRS-Q monograph 5

Recent research on bicycle helmets and concerns about how public bicycle hire schemes will function in the context of compulsory helmet wearing laws have drawn media attention. This monograph presents the results of research commissioned by the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads to review the national and international literature regarding the health outcomes of cycling and bicycle helmets and examine crash and hospital data. It also includes critical examinations of the methodology used by Voukelatos and Rissel (2010), and estimates the likely effects of possible segmented approaches to bicycle helmet wearing legislation. The research concludes that current bicycle helmet wearing rates are halving the number of head injuries experienced by Queensland cyclists. Helmet wearing legislation discouraged people from cycling when it was first introduced but there is little evidence that it continues to do so. Cycling has significant health benefits and should be encouraged in ways that reduce the risk of the most serious injuries. Infrastructure and speed management approaches to improving the safety of cycling should be undertaken as part of a Safe System approach, but protection of the individual by simple and cost-effective methods such as bicycle helmets should also be part of an overall package of measures.

Adults cycling on the footpath : what do the data show?

Recent increases in cycling have led to many media articles highlighting concerns about interactions between cyclists and pedestrians on footpaths and off-road paths. Under the Australian Road Rules, adults are not allowed to ride on footpaths unless accompanying a child 12 years of age or younger. However, this rule does not apply in Queensland. This paper reviews international studies that examine the safety of footpath cycling for both cyclists and pedestrians, and relevant Australian crash and injury data. The results of a survey of more than 2,500 Queensland adult cyclists are presented in terms of the frequency of footpath cycling, the characteristics of those cyclists and the characteristics of self-reported footpath crashes. A third of the respondents reported riding on the footpath and, of those, about two-thirds did so reluctantly. Riding on the footpath was more common for utilitarian trips and for new riders, although the average distance ridden on footpaths was greater for experienced riders. About 5% of distance ridden and a similar percentage of self-reported crashes occurred on footpaths. These data are discussed in terms of the Safe Systems principle of separating road users with vastly different levels of kinetic energy. The paper concludes that footpaths are important facilities for both inexperienced and experienced riders and for utilitarian riding, especially in locations riders consider do not provide a safe system for cycling.

Linking the fifth pillar to the first in the UN Decade of Action

The UN Decade of Action outlines five pillars of activity within a safe system framework to achieve the goal of slowing and then reversing the global growth in road traffic fatalities, especially in low-income and middle-income countries. The first four pillars - road safety management, safer roads and mobility, safer vehicles, and safer road users – have a strong focus on prevention of road traffic crashes and mitigation of energy exchange when a crash occurs. The fifth pillar – post-crash response – is far more specific, focusing only on crash victims in the event of a safe system failure. The victims appear to be relevant to the first four pillars only insofar as their numbers can be used to evaluate the success of road safety programs and identify the target groups and contributing factors. This paper argues that a better understanding of the lived experience of long term disability from traffic crashes has the potential to provide a feedback loop from the fifth pillar to the first. Research conducted in Thailand with male crash victims with spinal injury demonstrates that patterns of attribution and social and cultural factors have important implications for road safety management and for interventions aimed at influencing behaviour. In addition, the mobility constraints experienced by people with long term disability can point to systemic issues that might otherwise go unnoticed. The UN Decade of Action can benefit from a more thorough exploration of the experiences and circumstances of people with long term disability as the result of a road traffic crash. Rather than being evidence of the failure of the safe system, they can inform the development of more effective road safety management on low-income and middle-income countries.

Sleepiness : how a biological drive can influence other risky road user behaviours

The Safe System approach to road safety utilises a holistic view of the interactions among vehicles, roads and road users. Yet, the contribution of each of these factors to crashes is vastly different. The role of road users is widely acknowledged as an overwhelming contributor to road crashes. Substantial gains have been made with improvements to vehicle and roads over a number of years. However, improvements of the road user’s behaviour has been (in some cases) less substantial. A road user behaviour that is relatively unregulated is driver sleepiness, which is part of the ‘fatal five’ of risky road user behaviours. The effect of sleepiness is ubiquitous – sleepiness is a state that most, if not all drivers on our roads has experienced, and is habitually exposed to. The quality and quantity of daily sleep is integral to our level of neurobehavioural performance during wakefulness and as such can have a compounding effect on a number of other risky driving behaviours. This paper will discuss the potential influence of sleepiness as an interceding factor for a number of risky driving behaviours. Little effort has been given to increasing awareness of the deleterious and wide ranging effects that sleepiness has on road safety. Given the wide ranging influence of sleepiness, improvements of ‘sleep health’ as a protective factor at the community or individual level could lead to significant reductions in road trauma and increases of general well being. A discussion of potential actions to reduce sleepiness is required if reductions of road trauma are to continue.

Workcover Queensland Act 1996 - award of damages for future care not precluded by s315

In Karanfilov v Inghams Enterprises Pty Ltd interpreted provisions of the Workcover Queensland Act 1996 as it applied to an injury occurring before 1 July 2001, i.e. prior to amendments made by the Workcover Queensland Act 2001. The decision involved the construction, in particular, of sections 312 and 315 of the Act

Evolving a synergistic approach to road safety : an appraisal of the project management, stakeholder engagement and change facilitation (PSC) approach by means of two case studies

Existing research and best practice were utilized to develop the Project Management, Stakeholder Engagement and Change Facilitation (PSC) approach to road safety infrastructure projects. Two case studies involving Queensland Transport and Main Roads demonstrated that use of the PSC has potential to create synergies for projects undertaken by multi-disciplinary road safety groups, and to complement Safe System projects and philosophy. The case studies were the North West Road Safety Alliance project, and the implementation of Road Safety Audit policy, and utilised a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods including interviews and surveys.

The National Road Safety Partnership Program providing a pathway for any business/organisation to create a positive road safety culture

The National Road Safety Partnership Program (NRSPP) is an industry-led collaborative network which aims to support Australian businesses in developing a positive road safety culture. It aims to help businesses to protect their employees and the public, not only during work hours, but also when their staff are ‘off-duty’. How do we engage and help an organisation minimise work-related vehicle crashes and their consequences both internally, and within the broader community? The first step is helping an organisation to understand the true cost of its road incidents. Larger organisations often wear the costs without knowing the true impact to their bottom line. All they perceive is the change in insurance or vehicle repairs. Understanding the true cost should help mobilise a business’s leadership to do more. The next step is ensuring the business undertakes an informed, structured, evidence-based pathway which will guide them around the costly pitfalls. A pathway based around the safe system approach with buy-in at the top which brings the workforce along. The final step, benchmarking, allows the organisation to measure and track its change. This symposium will explore the pathway steps for organisations using NRSPP resources to become engaged in road safety. The 'Total Cost of Risk' calculator has been developed by Zurich, tested in Europe by Nestle and modified by NRSPP for Australia. This provides the first crucial step. The next step is a structured approach through the Workplace Road Safety Guide using experts and industry to discuss the preferred safe system approach which can then link into the national Benchmarking Project. The outputs from the symposium can help frame a pathway for organisations to follow through the NRSPP website.

Proposed vehicle impact speed: Severe injury probability relationships for selected crash types

Speed is recognised as a key contributor to crash likelihood and severity, and to road safety performance in general. Its fundamental role has been recognised by making Safe Speeds one of the four pillars of the Safe System. In this context, impact speeds above which humans are likely to sustain fatal injuries have been accepted as a reference in many Safe System infrastructure policy and planning discussions. To date, there have been no proposed relationships for impact speeds above which humans are likely to sustain fatal or serious (severe) injury, a more relevant Safe System measure. A research project on Safe System intersection design required a critical review of published literature on the relationship between impact speed and probability of injury. This has led to a number of questions being raised about the origins, accuracy and appropriateness of the currently accepted impact speed–fatality probability relationships (Wramborg 2005) in many policy documents. The literature review identified alternative, more recent and more precise relationships derived from the US crash reconstruction databases (NASS/CDS). The paper proposes for discussion a set of alternative relationships between vehicle impact speed and probability of MAIS3+ (fatal and serious) injury for selected common crash types. Proposed Safe System critical impact speed values are also proposed for use in road infrastructure assessment. The paper presents the methodology and assumptions used in developing these relationships. It identifies further research needed to confirm and refine these relationships. Such relationships would form valuable inputs into future road safety policies in Australia and New Zealand.

Confined Site Construction: Issues Regarding Implementation of Health and Safety

The objective of this paper is to identify the various managerial constraints, difficulties and issues encountered and resulting strategies adopted, to aid in the management of the various and often complex health and safety concerns, which occur within a confined construction site. This is achieved through classifying the various managerial burdens encountered with the numerous strategies adopted, to ensure the successful management of such confined environments within the realm of health and safety. Through an extensive literature review and detailed interviews, a comprehensive insight into the health and safety concerns within a confined construction site environment is portrayed. The leading managerial strategies to the management of health and safety on confined construction sites may be listed as follows; (1) Traffic Management Plan, (2) Effective Resource Management Plan, (3) Temporary Facilities Management Plan, (4) Safe System of Work Plan, (5) Site Safety Plan, (6) Design Site Layout, (7) Space Management Plan, (8) Effective Program Management, and (9) Space Scheduling. Based on the research, it can be concluded, that through effective management of these issues identified coupled with implementing the various strategies highlighted; successful management of health and safety within a confined construction site environment is attainable.

Strategies for Effective Management of Health and Safety in Confined Site Construction

The overall aim of this research is to identify and catalogue the numerous managerial strategies for effective management of health and safety on a confined, urban, construction site. A mixed methods methodology was adopted using interviews and focus group discussions on three selected case studies of confined construction sites. In addition to these, a questionnaire survey was used based on the findings from the interviews and the focus group discussions. The top five key strategies include (1) Employ safe system of work plans to mitigate personnel health and safety issues; (2) Inform personnel, before starting on-site, of the potential issues using site inductions; (3) Effective communication among site personnel; (4) Draft and implement an effective design site layout prior to starting on-site; and (5) Use of banksman (traffic co-ordinator) to segregate personnel from vehicular traffic. The construction sector is one of the leading industries in accident causation and with the continued development and regeneration of our urban centres, confined site construction is quickly becoming the norm - an environment which only fuels accident creation within the construction sector. This research aids on-site management that requires direction and assistance in the identification and implementation of key strategies for the management of health and safety, particularly in confined construction site environments.

Nuts and seed: A natural yet dangerous foreign body

Rationale and aim: This paper has the object to present the impact of nuts' and seeds' injuries withdrawing data from the Susy Safe registry, highlighting that as for other foreign bodies the main item efficiently and substantially susceptible to changes to decrease the accidents' rates is the education of adults and children, that can be shared with parents both from pediatricians and general practitioners. Indeed labeling and age related warnings have also a fundamental relevance in prevention. Methods: The present study draws its data from the Susy Safe registry. Details on injuries are entered in the Susy Safe Web-registry through a standardized case report form, that includes information regarding: children age and gender, features of the object, circumstances of injury (presence of parents and activity) and hospitalization's details (lasting, complications and removal details). Cases are prospectively collected using the Susy Safe system from 06/2005; moreover, also information regarding past consecutive cases available in each centre adhering to the project have been entered in the Susy Safe registry. Results: Nuts and seeds are one of the most common food item retrieved in foreign bodies injuries in children. In Susy Safe registry they represent the 38% in food group, and almost the 10% in general cases. Trachea, bronchi and lungs were the main location of FB's retrieval, showing an incidence of 68%. Hospitalization occurred in 83% of cases, showing the major frequency for foreign bodies located in trachea. This location was also the principal site of complications, with a frequency of 68%. There were no significant associations between these outcomes and the age class of the children. The most common complications seen (22.4%) was bronchitis, followed by pneumonia (19.7%). Adult presence was recorded as positive in 71.2% of cases, showing an association (p value 0.009) between the adult supervision and the hospitalization outcome. On the contrary there was a non significant association between adult presence and the occurrence of complications. In 80.7% of cases, the incident happened while the child was eating. Among those cases, 88.6% interested trachea, lungs and bronchi. Conclusions: Food-related aspiration injuries are common events for young children, particularly under 4 years of age, and may lead to severe complication. There is a need to study in more depth specific characteristics of foreign bodies associated with increased hazard, such as size, shape, hardness or firmness, lubricity, pliability and elasticity, in order to better identify risky foods, and more precisely described the pathogenetic pathway. Parents are not adequately conscious and aware toward this risk; therefore, the number and severity of the injuries could be reduced by educating parents and children. Information about food safety should be included in all visits to pediatricians in order to make parents able to understand, select, and identify key characteristics of hazardous foods and better control the hazard level of various foods. Finally, preventive measures including warning labels on high-risk foods could be implemented. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.