Course Title: Road Safety (Elective II) for BE Civil Engineering

Course Code: Course Structure: 4-0-1.5

Rationale: Road crashes can bring a hugely negative impact not only on public health but also on
sustainable economic development due to lost productivities, lost wages and salaries, medical and
long-term care cost, property damage, and travel delay. Therefore the need to improve road safety
is significant in the country.

Course Objectives:
 Develop much needed roadway safety fundamentals for undergraduate students
 Understand the management of road safety as a complex, multidisciplinary system
 Understand the characteristics of road safety data and information systems to support
decisions making process
 Demonstrate the knowledge and skills to assess factors contributing to road crashes,
identify potential countermeasures, apply countermeasures and implement and evaluate the
effectiveness of the countermeasures
 Be able to develop, implement and manage a road safety management program

Course Contents
Chapter1: Introduction: Road Safety (4 hrs)
1.1 Safety issues
1.2 Safety scenario comparison (crash records) of different modes of transportation
1.3 Trends of road crashes/fatalities in Nepal

Chapter 2: Human-Vehicle-Infrastructure in Road crashes (12 hrs)

2.1 Haddon matrix approach, safe system approach (safe speed, safe vehicles, safer roads
and roadsides)
2.2 Factors involved in road crashes (Road user/human, vehicle, road and roadway
environment)
i. Road User/Human factors Driver characteristics
ii. Human response process
2.3 Vehicles
i. Vehicle characteristics (static, dynamics, kinematics)
ii. Vehicles safety standards and Roadworthiness
2.4 Road and roadside environment
i. Lane width, shoulder, horizontal and vertical curves, widening, road
surface, sight distance, drainage
ii. Delineation, road markings, guide posts, warning signs including weather
warning
2.5 Speed management and control

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Chapter 3: Crash Investigation, analysis and Treatment of Crash Locations (16 hrs)
3.1 Crash data recording, coding, analysis
i. Need of crash data
ii. Coding criteria
iii. Primary and secondary data
iv. Technology available for data collection
v. Data accuracy
vi. Crash data recording system of Traffic Police
3.2 Speed calculation from crash data
3.3 Crash frequency, crash rates, crash patterns, crash trends over time, statistical
comparison
3.4 Crash location treatment process
3.5 Selection of countermeasures
i. Crash reduction capabilities of countermeasures
ii. Use of Road safety notes (DoR, Austroad)

Chapter 4: Road Safety Audit/Inspection (15 hrs)

4.1 Definition, objective and structure
4.2 Stages, components, process
4.3 Safety checks for new road projects
4.4 Safety inspection for existing roads
4.5 Prevailing practices of road safety audit in Nepal and improvements needed

Chapter 5: Road Safety Education and Public Awareness (8 hrs)

5.1 Definition and importance
5.2 Teachers guide, road users guide, children education
5.3 Road safety awareness publicity campaign

Chapter 6: Road Safety Policies and Regulations (5 hrs)

6.1 Global and National initiatives in Road Safety
6.2 Act and Regulations related to Road Safety in Nepal

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Question Setting Guidelines

Chapter Weightage (Marks)

1 8
2 12
3 20
4 24
5 8
6 8

Practical:
Practical marks will be evaluated based on:
1. Crash data collection and analysis: report submission/presentation
2. Road safety audit of at least 500m section of road for a group of students (4-6) with report
preparation and presentation at the end.

References:
 Principles of Traffic & Highway Engineering -2010; Garber-Hoel- Raju Sarkar
 Austroads Road Safety Guidelines 2009/2015
 US Highway Safety Manual 2009
 DoR Road Safety Note 4: Road Safety Audit Manual 1997, Safer drains, Delineation;
Safety Barriers; Identifying and treating accident sites
 Towards Safer Roads in Developing Countries: A Guide for Planners and Engineers; UK
ODA/TRL; 1994
 Road Traffic Injury Prevention Training Manual, WHO and IIT Delhi