Systems Thinking in Road Safety Management

Effective implementation of the “Safe System” approach requires ‘systems’ thinking in an integrated and holistic strategy involving all road safety disciplines. This paper examines safety systems management to gain a clearer perspective on managing road safety as a whole, rather than individual parts in isolation. The identification of a comprehensive system of good practice in data collection and risk analysis, root cause analysis incorporating contributory factors, together with critical performance monitoring leads to a more proactive approach to reform capable of achieving road safety targets. The paper identifies ‘System Safety’, explores the historical development of systems thinking and investigates transport and industry safety management to gain insight into how best to use the experiences in general road safety management. Road safety advancement is calling for a more systemic and dynamic analysis of road trauma risk factors. The original Haddon’s Matrix, used in crash investigations since the 1970’s is now questioned for sufficiency to support Safe Systems analysis. Psychologists such as James Reason and others have developed injury factor analysis tools that have been applied in occupational and aviation safety. These approaches support the analysis of latent root causes – methods that have generally not been applied in road safety. Apart from work-related road safety, this approach of systemic analysis has largely been absent. A critical assessment calls for a deeper analysis of road trauma data and more comprehensive use of key performance indicators in a similar application to that used in the medical and allied health services.