| Background
Safe System philosophy has been best-practice in road safety in Australia and New Zealand for nearly two decades. As highlighted by the Inquiry into the National Road Safety Strategy 2011-2020, there has been a failure to implement the Safe System at the ground level. For implementation to be successful, those at the coal-face of road practice must be versed in the Safe System. This means graduate knowledge of the Safe System – knowledge that today is largely absent.
Purpose of Symposium
The purpose of this symposium is to highlight the gap in graduate knowledge of the Safe System, discuss the implications of such a gap for those practicing the Safe System, and how this knowledge gap can be overcome. The Traffic Accident Commission of Victoria’s Safe System for Universities (SS4U) project being undertaken by VicRoads and the University of Adelaide will be discussed. SS4U provides the first consistent platform for teaching contemporary Safe System knowledge to engineering students at a tertiary level.
Justification
The need for graduate knowledge is regularly overlooked as a gap in our practice of the Safe System. It is often assumed that graduates will learn field-specific knowledge once they graduate. This has resulted in a generation of young road practitioners with little knowledge of the need for a Safe System of how it can be achieved.
Presenters
Jeremy Woolley, University of Adelaide Centre for Automotive Safety Research
Assoc. Prof. Jeremy Woolley co-chaired the Inquiry into the National Road Safety Strategy 2011-2020. Jeremy will discuss the findings of the inquiry and how these point to a need for Safe System knowledge at the coal-face – not only by those practicing road safety but all who are involved in the design and operation of our roads.
Wayne Moon, VicRoads Safe System Road Infrastructure Program
Wayne Moon is a leader in VicRoads’ Safe System Road Infrastructure Program and sees daily the issues regarding a lack of graduate knowledge in the Safe System. Wayne will discuss how this lack of knowledge affects implementation of the Safe System in Victoria.
Ashim Debnath, Deakin University School of Engineering
Dr. Ashim Debnath is a senior lecturer in transportation engineering at Deakin University. As one of the few lecturers in Australia disseminating Safe System knowledge to undergraduate engineering students, Ashim is well placed to discuss the lack of graduate knowledge in this field and what this means for graduate ability once they enter the workforce.
Chris Stokes, University of Adelaide Centre for Automotive Safety Research
Dr. Chris Stokes is a lecturer in road safety and lead creator of the Safe System for Universities project. Chris will discuss the SS4U and its ability in helping to bridge the gap in graduate knowledge. | 