Abstract:
The Safe System Approach (SSA) encourages road authorities and designers of the road
traffic system to provide safer roads and road environments. At its core, the, SSA
advocates for the need to constrain accident forces within the level of human tolerance,
which necessitates the management of speed, where speed too high for circumstances
leads to more severe injuries and fatalities. In addition, the SSA advocates the need to
adopt the viewpoint that roads or roadsides should be “forgiving”.
Technical Methods for Highways (TMH) 24 - the South African Road Restraint Systems
Manual (SARRSM 2022) compiled under the auspices of the Committee of Transport
Officials (COTO) is part of the South African Road Safety Manual (SARSM) series of
documents that have been developed to assess or audit road safety conditions, identify
areas that require improvement and provide guidance to improve road safety on the South
African road network, including the installation of road restraint systems (RRS). TMH 24 or
SARRSM 2022 provides for a uniform approach to the assessment, evaluation,
prioritisation, and design of road restraint systems across all road networks. The aim of
RRS is to contain and redirect errant vehicles to avoid injury to occupants and reduce the
damage to vehicles and infrastructure. RRS form a vital part of the road planning and
design process and requires detailed knowledge of civil, transportation and traffic
engineering, and road safety principles.
The Risk Assessment Procedure for South Africa (RAPSA) refers to the technical
guideline that assists road authorities and practitioners responsible for the planning and
design of roads to assess roadside safety. The ESSF 2023 workshop entails:
• Background to the RAPSA Process Associated with (pre-) Draft TMH24.
• RAPSA context and motivation for use (not guardrails as usual).
• Case Study: N10 Paterson to Olifantskop Pass.
• Practical application and use of RAPSA methodology.
The purpose of the last of the afternoon’s proceedings is to offer industry practitioners a
brief guide to and hold an interactive session with participants so that they can get a sense
of the practical value of the RAPSA tool. Participants will require a laptop PC and Microsoft
Excel. Each will be asked to input relevant parameters on a given segment of road to
appreciate the workings of the tool and how the outcome may be interpreted.
It is envisaged that closer attention will be paid to the specification of road restraint
systems by appreciating the cost of run-off-road crashes to the economy, and the value
that the Safe System Approach can add to our road network.
