Reduce, Refine, Separate and Mobilise - Applying Safety Principles to Designs, and Across Countries
Nimmi Candappa
ABSTRACT: Since the first recorded fatality in the late 1800s, millions upon millions of lives have been lost on our roads. Worldwide, in high income or low income countries, despite much investment, research and investigation, stringent enforcement, design development and redevelopment - death and serious injury persist on our roads. At the end of last year, the World health organisation reiterated that road safety remains an urgent global issue.
This presentation explores reasons why driving a car presents a persistent safety challenge despite the years of work in this area, and identifies some of the overall safety principles adopted within Victorian road safety countermeasures to create a foundation for road safety. Concrete examples are used to highlight the ongoing creativity needed to embed the principles into practical designs, and the importance of looking beyond the principles - being a road safety ‘detective’ in unearthing additional ways of improving safety, with a particular focus on possible challenges in existing wire rope safety barrier design.
The presentation concludes with some broad comments on some difficulties in research transfer across countries, the need to mobilise the road user for ultimate safety, and the even greater need for a global collaboration to address road safety where it is most urgent – in the low and middle income countries.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr Nimmi Candappa is a traffic and road safety engineer with a PhD in wire rope safety barriers. She has over 20 years of experience, having worked at the Victorian road authority, Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC), as well as being seconded to the Dutch research institute, SWOV, with expertise in intersection safety, wire rope safety barriers, and Safe System design. Her current role is to help implement Safe System design across the Victorian road network to eliminate deaths
