Implementation of road safety management systems in New Zealand

Author: William (Bill) Greenwood

1.    Abstract

The New Zealand Road Safety to 2010 Strategy identified a systematic approach to address road safety engineering issues as a key outcome. The adoption of Safety Management Systems (SMS) by New Zealand Road Controlling Authorities (NZ RCAs) is seen as the method of achieving this. Some NZ RCAs have integrated education and enforcement activities within their SMS.

The SMS model that has been developed for use by NZ RCAs is described in this paper. The methods used to achieve a 75 percent implementation of best practice SMS by NZ RCAs within a two-year period, will also be presented.

This paper also showcases and discusses the innovations in road safety engineering that have come out of the New Zealand Land Transport Safety Authority (LTSA) SMS development and implementation project.

2.    What is a safety management system?

An SMS consists of four major areas:

2.1 The strategic road safety direction of the RCA including the vision and plans to achieve it. The RCA partnerships needed to deliver safer roads are also identified.

2.2 The road safety 'toolbox' of delivery including crash reduction studies, safety audits, data collection, adopted standards and guidelines. These generally relate to the RCA's road hierarchy, staff structure, roles and technical expertise requirements.

2.3 The management control systems and responsibilities for the SMS including road safety e processes that will be used.

2.4 Continuous improvement/audit regimes to ensure best practices are in place and are being followed and delivered for the road users.

3.    What is the purpose of a safety management system?

SMSs are adopted by NZ RCAs to ensure that safety is considered in decisions about construction, maintenance, planning and management of their road network. Specifically the purpose of an SMS is to:

3.1 assist the achievement of targets and goals identified in national and local road safety strategies

3.2 implement road management procedures consistently and efficiently

3.3 ensure risk management is documented, providing protection from litigation

3.4 ensure road safety knowledge and expertise needs are documented

3.5 ensure methods to address any gaps are in place

3.6 provide clear documented guidance for staff, including training new employees

3.7 ensure that the management of the roading network is undertaken systematically

3.8 improve safety for all road users.

4.    How have safety management systems been developed?

The New Zealand Government First Steps Programme (LTSA, September 2002) provided funding to the LTSA for 17 projects in support of the Road Safety to 2010 strategy. In the engineering area a key component was an LTSA/NZ RCAs partnership for developing a quality systematic delivery of road safety engineering outcomes.

The development project to achieve the national adoption of SMSs has focused on five activity areas.

4.1    Project management

Following the appointment of the project manager in December 2002 a detailed project plan was developed (Greenwood, January 2003). The plan identified 13 deliverables and 18 key milestones that needed to be achieved by the project.

4.2    Communication

The communication plan developed for the project (Greenwood, April 2003) identified 12 objectives to be achieved by the plan. The target audiences along with the activities needed to reach them were also identified in the plan.

4.3    Guidelines

The LTSA is encouraging and assisting NZ RCAs to develop their road safety systems through three sets of guidelines.

1. Interim guidelines for developing a safety management system (LTSA, February 2003).
2. Guidelines for developing a safety management system for road controlling authorities (LTSA, November 2003).
3. Trial issue Guidelines for implementing a safety management system (LTSA, May 2004).

The guidelines have used material from many previous research papers (Appleton, 2000; Cleal and Edgar, 2001; Nicolson, 2002; and Cleal and Croft, 2002) and examples from existing NZ RCAs' SMSs.

4.4    Demonstration models

In the initial 18 months of the project, 42 NZ RCAs developed their SMS with the support of the LTSA. These SMSs acted as models for further refinement of the voluntary approach sought by the New Zealand Government.

Quality road safety system knowledge and experience gained by the NZ RCAs, consultants, and LTSA staff participating in the project, is shared at an annual review workshop. This increasing knowledge and experience is now being used to assist the remaining 16 NZ RCAs (as at 30th September 2004) develop their SMS. The vision is to have all 74 NZ RCAs implementing an SMS by 2007.

4.5    Expertise development

Ten different firms have so far been contracted to assist NZ RCA staff develop and implement their SMS. In the case of the larger consultancies, staff in many of their offices have developed an understanding of road safety while working on an SMS. A road safety engineer from the LTSA has also been involved in the development stages of the SMS. This, along with RCA participation in developing an SMS, has resulted in very wide exposure of staff to road safety. By facilitating wide participation in the project, road safety expertise gaps within the New Zealand engineering fraternity have to some extent been reduced. Quantification and documentation of the extent of any remaining road safety engineering gaps has now commenced. Once the extent of the problem is agreed with interested parties, solutions will be identified and actions taken to address these remaining gaps.

The road safety expertise development activities are now focused on:

1. bringing together interested parties to exchange information on and develop momentum to address the remaining road safety skill gaps in engineering.
2. specifying the road safety engineering expertise needed to implement and manage an SMS and the training needed to reach this level of expertise

The longer-term expertise development activities will focus on:

1. integration of road safety education and enforcement into SMSs
2. identifying audit regimes for SMSs
3. conducting technical workshops with industry to develop and promote SMS audit regimes
4. training SMS auditors.

5.    What road safety engineering innovations have occurred?

5.1    Raised the profile of road safety

The profile of road safety and in particular road safety engineering has been raised with NZ RCA decision-makers particularly through public consultation required in the development of a Road Safety Strategy (RSS). The councils have also incorporated the RSS they have developed into their Long term Council Community Plan (LTCCP). (New Zealand territorial authorities have recently been required to develop these strategic planning documents). A Memorandum of Understanding between the NZ RCAs and the LTSA is used to formalize the partnership process which underpins the development of the SMS. The requirement that the Chief Executive Officer and or Mayor sign this emphasizes the importance of this road safety innovation at the highest level within the NZ RCAs.

5.2    Quantified RCAs involvement in road safety

By supporting 42 RCAs in the development of their road safety engineering activities knowledge has been gained on the changes in practice that have been achieved. Most RCAs were undertaking Crash Reduction Studies prior to developing their SMS. Very few had documented formal safety audit procedures, deficiency analysis and prioritization databases. It is noticeable that the larger the RCA the less processes that are documented. This may be attributed to use of consultant (in-house or external) for specific projects rather that having a 'network management consultant'. The generally specialist nature of the often short staffed departments within the larger RCAs makes it difficult to develop a road safety culture.

5.3    Knowledge exchange

The development of a SMS has assisted many RCAs document practices developed to meet local conditions. This is of considerable benefit as many of the experienced RCA engineering staff are reaching retirement age and have few opportunities to pass on their knowledge. The extensive involvement of LTSA, RCA and consultant engineers developing and implementing SMSs has permitted rapid dissemination of best practice that has been developed by individual RCAs. These practices have been used in the LTSA guidelines to assist development, use and continuous improvement of road safety engineering and SMS skills through the country.

An annual SMS Review Workshop involving one engineer from each RCA with an SMS, principal LTSA and consultant engineering staff, is held to exchange road safety engineering, SMS knowledge, identified gaps in best practice and disseminate the findings to New Zealand RCAs.

5.4    Updating engineering standards, guidelines and practices

The identification of gaps in best practice road safety engineering standards, guidelines and practices and dissemination of the findings to New Zealand's RCAs has been undertaken in conjunction with the SMS project (Jackett, 2004). The SMSs developed by 20 RCAs were reviewed to ascertain what standards, guidelines and procedures were identified within the documents and were being used by each of the RCAs. RCA staff were also interviewed to find if any uncommon or local documents were being used and if a need existed within the industry for new or revised documents. The findings from this project will be provided to interested parties to agree the priority for developing new or revised documents. Funding is included in the draft 2004/2005 SMS project budget for work on these documents.

6.    Conclusions

The SMS project is one of the key components of the Road Safety to 2010 strategy. The potential ability of the road-engineering sector to achieve safety benefits has been given greater emphasis in this national strategy. For this to be achieved and the benefits realized nationwide, it is important that road safety expertise is applied as widely and as systematically as possible among the authorities responsible for road management. The project has supported the development of best practice SMSs and the resulting road safety innovations that have occurred in two thirds of New Zealand's RCAs.

The implementation of SMSs through out New Zealand RCAs has increased road safety knowledge and skills especially in the engineering field. The increased need created for these skills has also exacerbated the lack of road safety engineering skills within New Zealand. To ensure an ongoing high level of implementation of best practice SMS the road safety engineering expertise gaps will be researched and addressed.

7.    References:

• Ministry of Transport (October 2000) Road Safety Strategy 2010: A consultation document. Wellington, New Zealand.
• Land Transport Safety Authority (1998) Working Paper 2. Safety directions development programme. Wellington, New Zealand.
• Land Transport Safety Authority (2002) Road Safety Strategy Consultation Report. Wellington, New Zealand.
• Land Transport Safety Authority (September 2002) Road safety package - first steps to 2010. www.landtransport.govt.nz/strategy-2010/index.html.
• Greenwood, B (January 2003) Safety management systems project plan report to the Land Transport Safety Authority.
• Greenwood, B (April 2003) Safety management systems communication plan report to the Land Transport Safety Authority
• Land Transport Safety Authority (February 2003) Interim guidelines for developing a safety management system. Wellington, New Zealand.
• Land Transport Safety Authority (November 2003) Guidelines for developing a safety management system for road controlling authorities. Wellington, New Zealand.
• Land Transport Safety Authority (May 2004) Guidelines for implementing a safety management system. Wellington, New Zealand.
• Ministry of Transport (December 2003) New Zealand Transport Strategy, Wellington, New Zealand.
• Appleton, I (2000) Safety management systems. Proceedings of the Engineering for Road Safety Symposium. Rotorua, New Zealand.
• Cleal, P M and Edgar, J P (2001) Safety management systems for road controlling authorities. Proceedings of the 20th ARRB Transport Conference. Melbourne, Australia.
• Nicholson, A (2002) Road safety: a risk evaluation and management perspective. Proceedings of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (Australia and New Zealand) International Conference. Melbourne, Australia
• Croft, P and Cleal, P (2002) Road safety engineering: from principles to practice. Proceedings of the AITPM Conference.
• Jackett, M (July 2004) Safety management systems standards and guidelines assessment project report to the Land Transport Safety Authority.

Note
Any views expressed in this paper are those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the position of the Land Transport Safety Authority.

Keywords      Systematic Road Safety Engineering Management

Page created: 22 December 2005