Forgiving-Roadsides.Pdf
Foreword Under the Government’s Road Safety Strategy that covers the period from 2013 to 2020, Ireland is now moving towards a Safe Systems approach to road safety. The Safe Systems approach recognises that, even with an emphasis on the prevention of road collisions through better roads, education and enforcement, some collisions will inevitably occur. Roads should, therefore, be designed to expect and accommodate some degree of human error. The Safe Systems approach to road safety is built on three key concepts - Human Behaviour, Human Frailty and Forgiving Systems. The Forgiving Systems concept seeks to reduce the number of fatalities caused by run-off crashes by making roads more forgiving of driver error through the implementation of a range of safety enhancement measures. Recent studies have shown that approximately 45 per cent of fatal road crashes in the European Union are single vehicle incidents. These crashes are generally classified as run-off-road crashes, i.e. the vehicles left the road and entered the roadside. A key priority of the National Roads Authority during the period of the Road Safety Strategy is, accordingly, to implement forgiving roadsides systems that will help to reduce the incidence of run-off fatalities by ensuring that, in the event of a crash, the impact energies are below the threshold likely to produce either death or serious injury. I am confident that Forgiving Roadsides will provide a significant contribution to road safety. This will be achieved by providing drivers of errant vehicles that leave the main carriageway with adequate recovery space in the roadside in which to bring the vehicle under control, while also ensuring that, where a collision does occur in the roadside, appropriate treatments are in place to limit the impact forces on vehicle occupants to minor levels.
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