Published 15 Aug 2023
What is a Road Safety Audit Checklist?
A road safety audit checklist is a tool used by independent multidisciplinary auditors when performing road safety audits on existing or future roads or intersections. It can also be helpful for construction project auditors when conducting preliminary road safety checks before independent auditors perform their audits.
In this article
- What is a Road Safety Audit?
- Why Conduct RSAs
- Stages
- How to Prepare for RSAs
- What Should a Road Safety Audit Checklist Include?
- FAQs About Road Safety Audit Checklists
- Conduct Improved Road Safety Audits with a Powerful Mobile App
- Featured Road Safety Audit Checklists
What is a Road Safety Audit?
A road safety audit is conducted on existing or future roads or intersections to identify and assess road safety issues. A road’s readiness for use is determined by an independent team of multidisciplinary auditors who also provides recommendations on how risks can be mitigated. Performing road safety audits help reduce the frequency and severity of road accidents and improve road safety for the public.
Why Conduct RSAs
The primary importance of conducting road safety audits lies in ensuring that highways and roads operate safely once they’re cleared for public use. This also contributes to the efforts in minimizing hazards and risks that road users may face while on the road. In relation to that, these audits are also crucial in reducing collision and accident severity rates.
On the other hand, findings from road safety audits can help engineers and construction project managers put more effort into highlighting safety in creating highway designs. This way, the potential costs of future accidents caused by unsafe roads and highways can be reduced.
Stages
To ensure the effective implementation of a road safety audit, it should be conducted throughout the design and construction process. A typical RSA goes through the following stages:
- Route Selection Stage – conducting a feasibility assessment on road safety grounds
- Stage 1: Preliminary Design – assessing early design stages for any potential safety concerns
- Stage 2: Detailed Design – assessing the detailed aspects of the project’s design, operations, and servicing
- Stage 3: Construction – auditing of the completed construction before opening the scheme for public use
- Stage 4: Post Construction – checking if the construction requirements were met correctly and if there are safety concerns that weren’t identified during the early stages
- Stage 5: Monitoring – documenting costs, safety analyses, and further action plans to maintain road safety awareness
How to Prepare for RSAs
Before conducting a road safety audit, planning and gathering the right team is required. It’s important to know the steps to be taken before, during, and after the audit. Here are some tips on what to prepare and do when conducting road safety audits:
1. Determine the Objective
Knowing the objective will help in building the right auditing team and coming up with a plan of action for the road safety audit. It’s also important to know, at the onset, if the audit is for a new road or an existing intersection where accidents have been reported to happen. This information will determine how the road safety audit will go.
2. Build a Team
Depending on the objective, the auditing team members’ fields of expertise can vary. A road safety auditing team can comprise road safety specialists, highway engineers, traffic operations specialists, and a local contact person (e.g., local police officer). Assembling a multidisciplinary team is beneficial because varying perspectives can help in future road safety design. After building the team and before conducting the audit, members should meet and discuss how best to proceed with the road safety audit.
3. Conduct the Audit
The audit team will conduct the audit in different conditions and times of day to identify all apparent and potential road safety concerns. Team members will collect photos and data on possible road risks and causes of accidents. Because weather and road conditions can be unpredictable, it is important to bring the right tools and wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) before going to the site.
4. Prepare the Audit Report
After the audit, the team will organize and analyze all photos and data collected. They will collate relevant data to be included in the road safety audit report together with their recommendations. The report is then submitted as a single document to the project head or party who requested the audit.
What Should a Road Safety Audit Checklist Include?
Depending on the road scheme and type of construction work to be done, your RSA checklist template can include simpler or more complex details based on your needs. Even so, the following are the most basic information and sections it must include:
- Basic details such as the name of the road being audited, the date, time, and location of the audit being conducted, and who conducted it
- General and specific observations on the site, including road function and surroundings, service and rest areas, and passive safety installations
- Options to upload photo attachments, notes, and descriptions for better documentation
- Comments, recommendations, and sign-off for report completion
FAQs About Road Safety Audit Checklists
Since road safety audits have become a key part of the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), those applying for HSIP funding are required to conduct RSAs. On the other hand, an RSA is required for 25% of design plans if all or some parts of a project are eligible for HSIP.
An independent multidisciplinary team of auditors is qualified to conduct a road safety audit. Consisting of at least two people, the team must be independent of the designer and approved by the National Roads Authority (NRA) or Local Roads Authority.
They are responsible for identifying potential safety concerns as well as areas for improvement with regard to road safety for public use.
There are various schemes needing road safety audits, including the following:
- Major road developmentsMotorway improvements
- Temporary traffic management diversions
- Pedestrian schemes
- Cycling and walking schemes
- Light rail integration schemes
- Bus priority schemes
Conduct Improved Road Safety Audits with a Powerful Mobile App
Why use SafetyCulture (formerly iAuditor)?
When conducting something as vital as a road safety audit, it’s best to use technology that can improve auditing efficiency and make data capture more organized and convenient. SafetyCulture, the world’s most powerful mobile auditing app, can help road safety experts conveniently capture significant information anytime, anywhere, and instantly convert them into a complete report. With SafetyCulture, you can also do the following:
- Make handy road safety audits, even in remote sites with no reception, since it works on mobile devices and automatically saves data and synchronizes them whenever you are online.
- Capture photos of road safety issues to include on the audit report, annotate images to better explain what is observed on site, and recommend corrective actions for resolution.
- Maximize the text fields in checklists and templates so you can enter notes for your audit report.
- Share audit templates with your team and submit geotechnical reports via web reports, PDF documents, and other formats such as Excel, Word, or CSV. You can also save your data in the app’s secure cloud storage for easier recordkeeping and access via mobile or desktop.
- Capture longitude and latitude data via Geotagging for location accuracy when conducting road safety audits.
- Use EdApp by SafetyCulture, a microlearning solution, to create and deploy a road safety audit course for your team to improve your training program on construction safety and quality.
Featured Road Safety Audit Checklists
Road Safety Inspection Checklist
A road safety inspection checklist is used to assess possible hazards in existing roads. This digitized checklist uses a Yes-No-N/A response set and allows photos and notes to be included on relevant question items. Share SafetyCulture reports via a weblink or PDF document.
Road Traffic Safety Checklist - Construction
This road traffic safety checklist is used to check safety precautions before commencing work for construction. Start by providing details of the construction project, speed limits, and expected traffic conditions. Inspect safety signs, PPE worn, etc., and inspect the safety of workers. Provide a final overall rating of the traffic control measures and any recommendations for the site.
