A road safety audit is a formal procedure to assess the accident potential and likely safety performance of a specific road design or traffic scheme. It can be applied to a new construction or to an alteration of an existing road. Audits are intended to identify potential road problems that can put safety at risk by looking at the scheme as if through the eyes of the potential users, and to make suggestions for solving eventual problems applying the principles of road safety engineering.1It is important to minimise the accident risk at the design stage already in order to decrease the likelihood of having to take accident remedial measures later. Thereby the whole-life cost of the scheme can be reduced. Road safety audits are therefore a tool to prevent accidents on new or modified roads. They often complement low-cost measures to reduce accidents on existing roads. (Author/publisher)
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