On the right road

The UK’s first independent body tasked with examining incidents on the country’s roads has been launched in a bid to help save lives. The Road Safety Investigation Branch (RSIB) will make independent recommendations and play an important role in shaping future road safety policy. Its team of inspectors will study how and why accidents happened and identify particular areas of concern, as well as looking at new technologies such as self-driving vehicles. 

Road accidents lead to more deaths in Britain that any other form of transport. The creation of the RSIB brings road safety in line with other independent bodies that investigate incidents in air, sea and rail accidents.

Professor Sarah Sharples, Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department for Transport and Chartered Fellow of the CIEHF, said: “I’m really pleased to see the news announcing the establishment of the Road Safety Investigation Branch. This will enable systems analysis of the different influential factors on incidents, and help to guide our understanding of the impact of new technologies in the road setting.

“We’re well aware as human factors professionals, taking a multi-factorial, systems approach to analysis of incidents is essential if we are to draw appropriate learnings and insights, ensuring we recognise the complex interactions between people, technologies and infrastructure. I’m really looking forward to seeing the progress of the RSIB as it’s established.”