An impressive total of 216 delegates from engineering companies, local authorities and regional offices of Highways England attended the biggest-ever gathering of SoRSA, the UK’s Society of Road Safety Auditors in Birmingham on 26-27 June. Professor Steve Stradling (pictured), opening the plenary sessions, captured the feeling – “Hello Glastonbury!”.
EuroRAP Regional Director Steve Lawson built on the recent work of the Hilda Gomez-led Multilateral Development Bank Road Safety initiative, drawing parallels between the work of road safety auditors and the skills required to undertake the star rating of designs. He used examples of roadside design assessment to make his points.
Auditors have established skills and expertise in identifying safety issues and priorities from design drawings. The existing road safety audit supplier networks make it possible for clients to tender the star rating assessments as part of broader road safety audit packages.
Star rating of a design captures the major road safety issues and performance in a road design. By providing an objective target, the high-level safety performance of the project can be measured. The complementary road safety audit process provides the more detailed and thorough inspection of all safety issues and the site specific interaction of road design, road users and operating conditions that impact safety.