Review and formalisation of South African road safety audit guidelines

Abstract

The South African Road Safety Audit Manual 2012 (SARSAM-2012) was published by the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) as a comprehensive guide for the formal road safety audit process of transport infrastructure projects at the various design stages and when roads are upgraded or rehabilitated as well as for the road safety appraisals and assessments of existing roads. It was developed as a practical guide to the Road Safety Engineering fraternity to conduct road safety audits, appraisals and assessments. During the development of SARSAM-2012 it was envisaged to be a living document that would be updated periodically so that it would maintain relevancy. The RTMC through the National Traffic Engineering Technical Committee (NRTETC) identified the need to review the SARSM-2012 formally with the intention to update the Manual during 2018/2019. The updating is to consider experiences from its application over the past 5 years, address possible deficiencies and restructure the document to provide a more pragmatic approach for road safety audits, appraisals and assessments in South Africa. The presentation will present and discuss the recommendations that emanated from an initial review of the SARSM 2012 as a framework for its revision and updating. One of the key recommendations is to repackage the guidelines into a TMH (for road safety audits) and TRH (for road safety inspections) series of standards to be used by the roads industry