Towards a Safe System

The vision, a safe road system increasingly free of death and serious injury, challenges us to see road deaths and serious injuries as preventable.

We will need a significant shift in the way we think about and manage road safety if we are to realise our vision over 2010–2020. Our current approach could maintain our existing level of road safety, but it will not deliver further reductions in the number of deaths and serious injuries.

To achieve this change we will take a Safe System approach to road safety. The Safe System differs from traditional approaches to road safety. Rather than always blaming the road user for causing a crash, it acknowledges that even responsible people sometimes make mistakes in their use of the roads.

Given that mistakes are inevitable, we need the system to protect people from death or serious injury. To do this, the Safe System has objectives to:

• make the road transport system more accommodating of human error
• manage the forces that injure people in a crash to a level the human body can tolerate without serious injury
• minimise the level of unsafe road user behaviour

In order to achieve these objectives, the human body’s tolerance to crash forces will need to be the key design factor for the system. Crash forces would be managed so they do not exceed these limits.

For example, a pedestrian or cyclist is likely to be killed or seriously injured by a car travelling over 40 km/h. A Safe System would protect pedestrians and cyclists by providing safer roading infrastructure, by encouraging the uptake of vehicles that inflict less harm on vulnerable users in a crash, and by managing speeds to reduce serious injury risk.

The Safe System focuses on creating safe roads, safe speeds, safe vehicles and safe road use. Our goal would be to ultimately achieve:

• Safe roads – that are predictable and forgiving of mistakes. They are self-explaining in that their design encourages safe travel speeds.
• Safe speeds – travel speeds suit the function and level of safety of the road. People understand and comply with the speed limits and drive to the conditions.
• Safe vehicles – that prevent crashes and protect road users, including pedestrians and cyclists, in the event of a crash.
• Safe road use – road users that are skilled and competent, alert and unimpaired. They comply with road rules, take steps to improve safety, and demand and expect safety improvements.

The Safe System is illustrated below:

Who is responsible for the Safe System?

Figure 6 shows that, under a Safe System, road safety is everyone’s responsibility.

The Safe System approach requires shared responsibility between road users and system designers. It says that if road users are alert and comply with the road rules, and travel at safe speeds, they should be able to rely on the road and roadside features, and the vehicle to protect them from death and serious injury.

For this to occur:

Road controlling authorities have to design, build and maintain roads and to manage speeds to protect responsible road users.

The vehicle industry has to provide safe vehicles and be socially responsible when marketing vehicles to consumers.

Central and local governments have to inform and educate New Zealanders about road safety issues. They need to provide effective road safety regulation and to adequately fund road safety. They also have a responsibility to integrate safety into decisions about land-use.

Road users have to take steps to increase their safety, such as complying with road rules and being unimpaired by alcohol, drugs, fatigue or distraction.

Employers have to ensure their corporate policy and practice supports a positive road safety culture based on a Safe System approach.

Download the full Safer Journeys strategy here (PDF v7.0, 2,332kb)