Safe system learning for tertiary road transport engineering students

Context: The Safe System philosophy, adopted in many countries and underpinning Australian and New Zealand road safety strategy, is best-practice in road safety. However, there remains a general absence of the Safe System approach in many road transport engineering undergraduate courses. Despite being acknowledged as best-practice, little of the Safe System is known by graduating engineers, creating a discrepancy between base graduate knowledge and road safety industry practice which is a problem for industry. Purpose: The aim of this project is to determine the best educational design for disseminating Safe System learnings to tertiary engineering students. This paper will explore the best educational design for: a. Disseminating Safe System moral and ethical principles for all tertiary engineering students particularly in fields where human safety is considered paramount. b. Disseminating Safe System theory and practice for tertiary engineering students focussing on road transport engineering. Approach: Responding to the road transportation industry need to recruit engineers versed in the Safe System, curriculum guidelines and materials are being developed to guide Safe System learning at the tertiary level. Graduate attributes and learning outcomes are developed with input from industry representatives. The approaches to learning and teaching are developed with the assistance of senior teaching academics. Key objectives of the approach are modular topics and material for ease of integration into existing courses; interactive teaching material based on industry knowledge and case studies; and a thematic learning approach. Results: The Safe System for Universities (SS4U) curriculum guideline is being developed as a guideline for the learning and teaching of Safe System ethical and moral principles at an introductory level for first year engineering students, and Safe System theory and practice at a more advanced level for students undertaking study in road transportation engineering. It will provide road transport engineering students with the information needed to critically analyse the discussion and application of Safe System thinking and importantly, to be able to question when it is absent. Furthermore, the broad moral and ethical principles of engineering safety are emphasized to enable engineering students a moral and ethical perspective to the technical and procedural decisions that they will make in their future careers. Conclusions: Through this project, a means for smarter educational design for disseminating Safe System knowledge to student engineers is being developed. The outcome of this dissemination will be graduate engineers able to apply their knowledge of the Safe System to their chosen field of practice to benefit the wider community, and specifically, helping to fulfil a road transport industry need.Christopher Stokes, Wayne Moon, Johan Strandroth, Jeremy Woolley, Niclas Johansso

Safe System for Universities: linking graduate knowledge with industry best practice

Safe System represents long-established best-practice in road safety internationally, in Australia and in New Zealand. However, there has been limited success in implementing Safe System policy into practice. While Safe System theory is taught at some Australian universities, there are currently no consistent means of formal education before professionals enter the workforce, leading to a discrepancy between graduate engineer knowledge and industry best-practice. The Safe System for Universities (SS4U) project provides a means for consistent education of Safe System theory at a tertiary level. SS4U is designed for self-learning and a curriculum and material to teach Safe System within existing courses.Chris Stokes, Wayne Moon, Jeremy Woolley, Johan Strandroth, Niclas Johansso

The safety effect of increased pedestrian protection, autonomous emergency braking for pedestrians and bicyclists on passenger cars, and speed management

This was the first retrospective study to estimate the effect of increased pedestrian protection, autonomous emergency braking, and speed management to reduce serious injuries among pedestrians and bicyclists. More specifically, the aim was to estimate the injury mitigating effects of the following interventions: AEB with pedestrian and bicyclist detection, Euro NCAP pedestrian test score, active bonnet, traffic calming at pedestrian and bicycle crossings, and additionally, the combined effect of the above-mentioned treatments. The main source of data was the Swedish traffic data acquisition system (Strada), where information of road traffic crashes between passenger cars and pedestrians or bicyclists for the period 1 January 2003–31 December 2022 was obtained. Cars with optional fitment of AEB systems were identified, and the license registration number was used to access individual car equipment lists to identify whether the vehicle was equipped with AEB with pedestrian and/or cyclist detection. Information about traffic calming at pedestrian and bicycle crossings was obtained from the Swedish Transport Administration. The injury metric used was risk of permanent medical impairment (RPMI) of at least one percent and ten percent. RPMI captures the risk of long-term medical impairment based on a diagnosed injury location and Abbreviated Injury Severity (AIS) score. The relative difference between the mean values of RPMI (mRPMI1%+ and mRPMI10%+) was calculated and tested using an independent two sample t-test which was conducted for unequal sample sizes and variance. Although many results were found to be statistically non-significant, the following results were found to be significant at least at 90% level. Pedestrian mRPMI10%+ was reduced by 44% in speed zones ≤ 50 km/h comparing the group struck by cars equipped with AEB with pedestrian detection compared to the group struck by cars without the system. For cyclists, the mRPMI10%+ was reduced by 35% in speed zones ≤ 50 km/h. For crashes within ± 20 meters from a pedestrian or bicycle crossing, the AEB system reduced 60% of pedestrians mRPMI10%+ at crossings with good safety standard compared to crossings of poor safety standard. The comparison of cars with poor performance (1–9 points) in the NCAP pedestrian test and cars with a high score (28–36 points) showed that pedestrian mRPMI10%+ was reduced by 48% across all speed limits, and by 64% including only those aged ≤ 64 years. For bicyclists, a significant reduction of cyclist mRPMI10%+ was found comparing low scoring cars to high scoring cars in ≤ 30 km/h speed limit (-73%) and across all speed limits (-36%). Including only those aged ≤ 64 years, the reduction was 49%. For the active bonnet, a significant reduction of mRPMI1%+ by 24% was observed but given that the rate of helmet wearing was higher in the group struck by cars with active bonnet, this difference cannot be attributed to an effect of an active bonnet. The STA safety rating of pedestrian and bicycle crossings showed that overall pedestrian mRPMI1%+ was reduced by 15%, while cyclists mRPMI10%+ was reduced by 32% comparing crossings of high safety level to crossings of poor safety level. The analysis of combined interventions showed that the total reduction of pedestrians and cyclists mRPMI10%+ together was 69%, from 6.4% to 2%. This paper demonstrates that a road environment with adapted infrastructure and speed, combined with passenger car technologies that improve the safety for vulnerable road users, can create significant reductions of serious (long-term) injuries among pedestrians and bicyclists. © 2024, Lund University Faculty of Engineering. All rights reserved

The consequences of adopting a MAIS 3 injury target for road safety in the EU: A comparison with targets based on fatalities and long-term consequences

It has been proposed in the European Union (EU) to adopt a Maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale (MAIS) of 3 or greater as the basis for a road safety target. To have a common definition of serious injury across the EU is in itself very positive. In this study, fatalities, MAIS 3+, MAIS 2+ and injuries leading to permanent medical impairment (PMI) were used to identify problem scenarios. A national data set of injuries reported to Swedish hospitals from 2007 to 2012 (STRADA) was used. Police-reported injuries were also taken into account. The results showed that, depending on the data source and injury rating method, problem scenarios differed substantially. While fatalities were dominated by vehicle occupants in high-speed environments, vulnerable road users in urban areas were in greater focus as a result of lowered thresholds for injury or impairment levels. Bicyclists in particular have many injuries at less severe, yet significant, levels. There is a particular need to consider certain diagnoses which lead, relatively often, to long-term consequences at the AIS 1 level. To achieve a better injury and consequence scenario, data from the medical system are an essential prerequisite

The consequences of adopting a MAIS 3 injury target for road safety in the EU: A comparison with targets based on fatalities and long-term consequences

It has been proposed in the European Union (EU) to adopt a Maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale (MAIS) of 3 or greater as the basis for a road safety target. To have a common definition of serious injury across the EU is in itself very positive. In this study, fatalities, MAIS 3+, MAIS 2+ and injuries leading to permanent medical impairment (PMI) were used to identify problem scenarios. A national data set of injuries reported to Swedish hospitals from 2007 to 2012 (STRADA) was used. Police-reported injuries were also taken into account. The results showed that, depending on the data source and injury rating method, problem scenarios differed substantially. While fatalities were dominated by vehicle occupants in high-speed environments, vulnerable road users in urban areas were in greater focus as a result of lowered thresholds for injury or impairment levels. Bicyclists in particular have many injuries at less severe, yet significant, levels. There is a particular need to consider certain diagnoses which lead, relatively often, to long-term consequences at the AIS 1 level. To achieve a better injury and consequence scenario, data from the medical system are an essential prerequisite

Effects of winter Tyre type on roughness and polishing of road surfaces covered with ice and compact snow

Purpose: This field study was designed to compare to what degree various proportions of studded and unstudded winter tyres affect the roughness and polishing of road surfaces covered with ice and compact snow.Methods: Test cars equipped with studded and unstudded winter tyres drove around a test track according to the designed procedure. The main straight section of the track had five lanes, each with a different proportion of cars with studded tyres: 100%, 75%, 50%, 25% and 0% of the respective lane traffic. The remainder were cars with unstudded winter tyres. Each lane included sections of ice and compact snow with subsections for constant speed, braking and acceleration. The lanes were driven 642 times. The ambient temperature was approximately 0 °C during the test.Results: The overall results showed that there was no substantial difference in friction of the road surface between lanes having 100%, 75% or 50% of cars with studded tyres. However, the friction was much poorer in lanes having fewer cars with studded tyres.Conclusions: These results suggest that traffic with 50% of cars having studded tyres results in adequate friction of icy road surfaces in the test conditions