Having pursued a results-oriented focus since the 1990s, Western Australia has made significant progress over the last two decades in reducing per capita death rates in road traffic crashes. Unsurprisingly for an active jurisdiction in road safety, Western Australia’s road safety management system is in an advanced phase of development when compared globally. This systematic road safety management capacity review, using the „state of the art? World Bank road safety management assessment framework, confirms that many elements of its management system are consistent with international good practice. . However, with the shift to the Safe System approach, there are system elements that require strengthening. At the same time, the road safety results being achieved indicate that Western Australia has some way to go before it can join the global leaders in road safety performance. The road death rate across the WA network in 2009 was 8.6 per 100,000 of population which is about twice that of the global leaders. On rural roads, the very high death rate of 21 deaths per 100,000 of population compares with performance achieved in low-income countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Nearly half of all major trauma patients in WA received their injuries in road crashes which are the leading cause of death in WA for those aged between 1-24 years. The trend in deaths since 2006 has been upward and while there was a reduction in 2009, there were 30 more deaths than the lowest number achieved in 2005. Road traffic injury in WA is costly and the annual socio-economic cost is conservatively estimated at $2 billion. Western Australia has adopted global best practice in its long-term goal to eliminate death and long-term injury on its network. It has embarked upon a bold path with its Towards Zero strategy which demands governmental leadership, meaningful shared responsibility and sustained investment to reach new levels of high performance. It must now find the way to implement the strategy. Western Australia is to be congratulated for taking stock of where it currently sits and assess what it needs to do to achieve its ambitious road safety goal. Based on national and international good practice and information provided by the senior management of key road safety partners and stakeholders in WA, this independent review has identified some scope for future action. Addressing the long-term goal of eliminating death and long-term injury elimination influences management functions and interventions in ways that differ profoundly from typical targeted approaches of the past. It requires both a shift to a more protective system (separating dangerous mixed road use, better speed management, more crash protective roads and vehicles, good recovery and rehabilitation mechanisms) as well as achieving higher levels of user compliance with the key road safety rules in terms of speed, driver impairment by alcohol and other drugs and the use of safety equipment. At the same time, international best practice indicates that this ambitious vision for the future requires ownership and accountability in the lead agency and its governmental partners for challenging but achievable interim targets and performance indicators. This essential ingredient for success is currently lacking in the Western Australia activity. It is clearly a major impediment to progress in implementing Towards Zero and securing sustainable funding for its evidence-based approaches. The capacity review concludes that Western Australia is currently in the „establishment? phase of its investment strategy for the implementation of Towards Zero. In view of the government’s highly ambitious long-term goal, further activity in this phase is needed to build capacity, target the effort and prepare the way for rapid „growth?. An investment strategy to 2020 is proposed to prepare further for rapid growth in Western Australia’s efforts to address its serious road safety problem and achieve its desired results. The recommendations are underpinned by the adoption of the proposed interim target to reduce deaths and serious injuries by 40 per cent by 2020. They include as priorities the development of an enhanced safety performance framework and strengthening of other key institutional management capacity, particularly lead agency and roads authority strengthening, for the delivery of accountable, well-orchestrated, funded and effective Towards Zero activity. The key role of local government, industry and the non government sector partnerships in delivering benefits also receives attention. A key element of the recommended investment strategy is the spearhead activity entitled the Towards Zero Booster Program (to 2014). This has been designed to strengthen lead agency capacity, accelerate knowledge transfer across the Towards Zero partnership, promote innovation in targeted high-risk sections of the network, achieve quick results and build the platform for a more scaled up approach across the remainder of the network. Immediate and short term gains can also be expected from conventional interventions derived from national and international best practice, especially enhanced enforcement combined with publicity as envisaged in Towards Zero, while improvement of the protective features of the network, the vehicle fleet and the emergency medical system which are delivering returns in other jurisdictions will bring big benefits in the medium to long-term. The recommendations will rely heavily on substantially strengthened capacity in the ORS and important upgrades in MRWA and in local government in particular, together with commitment to an upgraded level of funding. This is a major issue for the delivery of the improvements identified. There are also necessary capacity strengthening requirements in WAPOL, DoT and other agencies. These high level recommendations were presented to a Perth workshop in August 2010 and received broad support. A 40% reduction in deaths and serious injuries by 2020 as foreseen by Towards Zero is considered within WA’s reach, but will require governmental commitment to the target, substantial resourcing of the lead agency and of MRWA and local government road safety efforts, major knowledge transfer within and beyond government, supported by strong coordination and performance accountability frameworks plus increased funding. As a prelude to the implementation of Towards Zero and, in line with international best practice, a peer review of road safety management in Western Australia has been carried out by international road safety experts. The independent review was carried out during the period from May to September 2010, funded by the Road Safety Council with project management by the Office of Road Safety. It involved initial stakeholder questionnaires and face to face meetings with a wide range of road safety partners and stakeholders comprising senior managers and decision-makers, road safety professionals and technical experts from the key governmental agencies, professions, the non governmental sector and industry. The purpose of this review has been to: • provide an independent, qualitative peer review of Western Australia’s road safety management capacity to deliver Towards Zero outcomes; • reflect back from partners and stakeholders about strengths and weaknesses of current approaches and to achieve a high-level consensus of senior management on next steps; • recommend any further multi-sectoral „good practice? action to build capacity where gaps are identified for implementing Towards Zero Safety management capacity in Western Australia has been reviewed in a systemic way which takes account of all elements of the safety management system and their interactions. Activity has been reviewed across best practice road safety management dimensions using systematic checklists used by the World Bank and recommended by the OECD. These dimensions comprise institutional management functions which provide the foundation for system-wide interventions by all relevant sectors in order to achieve results (See Figure 1). The consultants have drawn upon the stakeholder responses, their experience and judgement to provide findings and an overall assessment of the present situation and recommendations for change and improvement to assist delivery of Towards Zero. A highly summarized assessment is presented in this Executive Summary for each element of the road safety management system. Strengths and weaknesses and high-level recommendations for capacity building are outlined. The approach used in the review also distinguishes between the establishment, growth and consolidation phases of a country’s long-term investment strategy for road safety and recommendations for priority actions based on the capacity review are presented. Recommendations for (a) short to medium-term measures to 2020 and (b) concurrent shorter term booster program measures to 2014 are set out in summary in Section 4 of the Report (and in detail for each in Section 5, Recommendations). (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting