Reflections on road safety

Wednesday, June 15, 2016
In the framework of the Road Safety Day, commemorating the 10 June, and under the slogan "We must all be students of the Road Education", the Raúl Caves gives us reflections on the theme.
 
The provision to a society of security in the transit includes activities intended for the user of the road, to the vehicle and the road system. It is usual to cite to these components as the "Triangle", "Trilogy", etc. of the road safety and it is also usual to add that the human being (as pedestrian, bicycle passenger or driver) is the main cause of accidents, risking in some cases percentage values.
 
Professor Emeritus of the University of Toronto Ezra Hauer expresses its wise criterion in "two myths and a thesis" that: "There is a widespread belief that the crashes are caused by drivers, the obvious remedies are: better training and education, granting more strict of driving licenses, police controls more severe, higher fines, revocation of licenses in the place, and similar measures. It is natural to blame for the bad things of the shocks to the conductors. But is decidedly uncertain that the majority of impacts to understand to the 'bad drivers'."
Or deduced that the measures aimed at the drivers are the only or the most effective way to reduce the future shocks. When the harsh rebuke of the 'bad drivers' is the basic answer of a government to most of the problems of road safety, this is a sure sign that road safety is regarded primarily as a public relations problem.
 
The argument that one also needed to pay attention to roads and safer vehicles, does not cut much ice.
 
It also adds that: "Effective action should be addressed jointly to the human element, the vehicle and the road.
The road design can reduce the incidence of human error, you can reduce the possibility of human error that ends in an impact, and can undermine the seriousness of the consequences of shocks that are initiated by a human error."
 
Therefore, "the seal of a comprehensive program to provide road safety is the balanced attention to users, vehicles and road".
It is precisely in this area where the road engineers trained in the National University of Santiago del Estero, play an important and decisive role with regard to road safety, since by means of knowledge and criteria that acquired in its training can analyze and evaluate the best design alternatives, either way rural or urban, providing the best conditions of platform that can reduce the incidence of human error.
 
Finally and quoting again to Professor Hezra Hauer: "A road is a product made for human use. It is known that this product is often dangerous for health".