Road safety auditors assess danger levels on roads and intersections, following government guidelines. They analyze data and make suggestions for reducing hazards, which the public agency must respond to. They work with the agency to incorporate findings into the road design and do follow-up audits.
Road safety auditors are responsible for formally assessing danger levels on roads or at intersections. The roads and intersections with which road safety auditors may be existing or still under development. The findings of road safety auditors strongly influence whether and how a road or intersection project gets started.
While a road safety auditor works, he must follow the guidelines set by the specific government body that oversees the highway system, such as the Federal Highway Administration in the US. These guidelines determine the steps the auditor should take during the audit. Failure to follow these steps could result in delays in the project and audit results.
Initially, a public body, such as a road commission or city government, identifies which intersection or road needs an audit. Once the agency does this, they contact a road safety agency and find auditors to lead the project. Once the public agency has an audit team, auditors work with the agency to define specific parameters under which the audit will be conducted. For example, they define the scope of the project, the tasks that auditors and the public agency must perform, when the project will take place, and reporting and response expectations. Auditors usually send a formal letter stating their understanding of the project, but they also have a formal primary meeting with members of the public agency to further discuss what the project entails and get on the same page.
With the project and responsibilities defined, a road safety auditor steps into the field. He visits the actual project site and looks for factors that could contribute to an accident or injury. The auditor assesses the site from various perspectives such as small car driver, truck driver, pedestrian and cyclist. He tries to treat everyone’s safety as equally important.
As part of the field audit, a road safety auditor may also interview individuals. Individuals can be citizens who use the road or intersection regularly, or they can be people involved in security in the area, such as the police. The goal is always to gather as much statistical and anecdotal data as possible about the problems in the area.
Based on the collected data, the next step for road safety auditors is to analyze the road or intersection. They prepare a formal report on the hazards or benefits present in the area. Part of the report includes suggestions on how the public agency can reduce or completely eliminate the hazards. The road safety auditor presents the report to members of the public agency.
The public body working on a road safety project has the opportunity to respond to the road safety auditor’s report upon receipt of the document. He must submit a formal statement on how he plans to address the suggestions made by the auditor. If the public body is unable to carry out a suggestion, it must explain in the response why it cannot proceed as suggested. A common reason for not proceeding, as the auditor suggests, is lack of funding, although agencies generally go to great lengths in trying to raise the money needed to provide good public safety.
The last step for a road safety auditor is to work with the public agency to incorporate the audit findings into the road or intersection design. For example, they can contact companies that can provide design services on behalf of the agency or help the agency come up with an adjusted project schedule. They typically do follow-up audits to see how the project is progressing.
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