The National Road Safety Strategy (NRSS) was released in May 2011 and is based firmly on Safe System principles. At its core is the aspiration that no one should be seriously injured or killed as a result of using the road system. The strategy provides a guide for road safety directions, priorities and initiatives until 2020 and was initially supported by an action plan (the “First Steps” agenda) covering the years 2011 -13. The strategy included a requirement for a review in 2014 of progress in implementing the “First Steps” agenda and further consideration of the implementation of the other proposed initiatives. In January 2014 an Austroads project was awarded to undertake research to assist the first review of the strategy. The review was not expected to suggest major changes to the philosophy, aspirations or initiatives contained in the strategy. Its role was to provide decision makers with an assessment of progress and to identify a limited number of new or enhanced initiatives, or potential areas for more focussed implementation. This Executive Summary outlines the work undertaken and the major results of this research project. The aim of the project was to assist the Austroads Safety Task Force (ASTF) to carry out an objective review of the NRSS and to provide evidence to help identify any necessary changes to priorities and initiatives to help develop the next three-year action plan. The project included a targeted literature review, consultation with members of the ASTF and a wider range of stakeholders, a review of the level of implementation of the NRSS, data analysis including an examination of hospital separations data and the identification of priority areas. The literature review was mainly restricted to documents published between 2011 and 2014, although some earlier work was included if considered relevant. Additional unpublished reports were also sourced where possible. The initial literature search identified that new information was available for a limited number of areas including vulnerable road users, older drivers, road safety communication, vehicle technology, and post crash response. The major findings are summarised below. The review found recent research has demonstrated the need to direct increased effort to countermeasures aimed at vulnerable road users. These road users are not receiving the same benefits as vehicle occupants from safer vehicles and exposure is believed to be increasing for motorcyclists and cyclists. The review identified a range of infrastructure based countermeasures and suggested research is required to better understand what constitutes a Safe System for vulnerable road users. National and international research has also shown that older drivers are driving longer and further than in previous years and that countermeasures beyond ensuring fitness to drive will be required. Matching infrastructure and vehicles to the needs of older drivers will become increasingly important. Considerable literature on road safety communication was found, particularly exploring the role of social media in both road safety education and raising awareness of road trauma, but it is clear this is still a developing area. More work is required to understand how best to take advantage of the opportunities provided by new communication methods. Vehicle technology has already produced considerable road safety benefits. For the remainder of the period of the NRSS, additional benefits from vehicle technology will come from ongoing improvements in crashworthiness as newer, safer vehicles filter into the fleet, however benefits from the new technologies will mainly be achieved in the following decade. The most promising of these new vehicle technologies in the medium and long term are Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB), Vehicle to Vehicle Communication (V2V) and Vehicle to Infrastructure Communication (V2I). The review of a considerable amount of literature discussing post crash response was inconclusive. It is unclear if improvements to post crash response can deliver significant benefits and enhancements to data collection systems and further research is required. An initial consultation with the members of the ASTF was carried out. The discussions covered identification of road safety initiatives at the state and national level, the role of national leadership, proposal of new road safety initiatives, the acceptance of Safe System principles in key organisations and new methods of monitoring road trauma. There was widespread support for the broad direction of the NRSS and all respondents identified several positive developments associated with the strategy since 2011. However, there was some concern that the strategy is insufficiently focussed to produce real change and that more activity is required at the national level. Seventeen national road safety stakeholder organisations were consulted to obtain their perspectives on the NRSS and identify issues that need to be addressed in future. The stakeholders were chosen to represent the full range of road safety interests. The conversations were guided by six questions circulated ahead of time, covering: major contributions to road safety by stakeholder organisations, major achievements at the national level, partners, acceptance of the Safe System, candidates for national priority actions and barriers to progress. There was support for the directions of the NRSS but concerns were expressed about limited engagement with stakeholders in the implementation of the NRSS and a perceived lack of national leadership. The implementation review assessed progress against the “First Steps” agenda and against items identified in the initial modelling used to guide the targets set for the NRSS. The implementation review drew heavily on the Implementation Status Report published by the Transport and Infrastructure Council together with information obtained from the ASTF and the stakeholder consultation and objective evidence from the data analysis. The review explored implementation issues as far as possible however, some of the fifty-nine actions in the “First Steps” agenda were couched in general language and had no obvious measure of success and others involved major changes to funding or legislation and so would not have been expected to be completed in the relatively short time since the strategy was released. It was agreed most success had been achieved in the Safe Vehicles area, with some new Australian Design Rules (ADRs) already achieved and others in progress, harmonisation of some ADRs with Global Technical Regulations (GTRs), ongoing support for the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) and evidence of the improved safety of new vehicles. There have also been successes in Safe Speeds, with most capital cities introducing 40 km/h in selected areas and some limited reductions in rural speed limits. The large-scale implementation of lower speed limits is progressing slower than anticipated by the strategy. The major achievements in the Safe People area were identified as the strengthening of graduated licensing scheme (GLS) provisions in many states and the extension of alcohol interlock programs. In the Safe Roads area there have been a number of major infrastructure projects. Major investment of $1 billion by the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) in Victoria and $100 million by the Motor Accident Commission (MAC) in South Australia were considered major achievements. A number of Austroads research projects have been carried out to support implementation of the “First Steps” agenda. There has been some progress in adopting willingness to pay values in investment decisions. (Author/publisher)
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