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ROAD SAFETY AUDITS If conducted on a regular basis, or whenever Traffi c hazards operational circumstances change signifi cantly, road safety audits can assist mining organisations to minimise the risks for their road users, writes In order to address traffi c safety issues both on public roads as well as on mines, the four elements that constitute road transport systems: speed, road environment, vehicles and users. Each element needs to be understood and managed in a coordinated approach. Such a systematic approach is known as Safe System for addressing traffi c hazards and reducing road trauma on public roads. W The system has human tolerance to physical forces at its basis and operates under the premise that road users should not be penalised with death or serious injury for innocent mistakes. Two of the key concepts of Safe System are that roads should be designed to minimise the chances of crashes occurring and to minimise injury to drivers who have been involved in a crash. Road safety audits (RSA) are one of the tools that are being used to achieve the system's ambitious 'zero harm' targets. Road safety auditing is a formalised safety assessment of a road's safety performance and crash potential that should be carried out at various stages of the project life including design, construction as well post-construction (existing) phases. RSAs aim at identifying existing or potential road safety issues and suggesting design solutions or procedural improvements to address these issues. herever there is traffi c, there are traffi c hazards. This is particularly true on mines with specifi c issues such as in compatibility between vehicle types, fatigue, operational constraints, work pressures, inadequate road networks, etc. A RSA is defi ned by Austroads as "…a formal examination of a future road or traffi c project or an existing road, in which an independent, qualifi ed team reports on the project's crash potential and safety performance…" RSAs consider and apply the principles of the Safe System approach in a proactive manner as opposed to, for example, incident investigations which tend to be reactive in addressing traffi c safety issues. Road safety auditing has been used on public road networks for a number of years and is now recognised as a valuable and proactive tool for reducing road trauma. In recent years it has been successfully applied in improving safety at numerous mining operations across Australia. The benefi ts of road safety auditing Road safety is recognised as one of the major risk areas on mining operations in Australia and abroad. As part of a systematic approach for improving safety on mines, the safety of road users should be one of the primary areas addressed by mining organisations. However, roads are often seen as 'associated' features of mining operations without a full appreciation of their importance for safe and effi cient movements of the mining vehicle fl eet. As a result, mining operations often give insuffi cient consideration to appropriate road design, construction and maintenance methods. The application of experiences gained from auditing public roads to road networks and vehicle operating Damir Vagaja. 48 The Australasian Mine Safety Journal Summer 2011/12