ANNEX IIIRANKING OF HIGH ACCIDENT CONCENTRATION SECTIONS AND NETWORK SAFETY RANKING

1.Identification of road sections with a high accident concentration

The identification of road sections with a high accident concentration takes into account at least the number of fatal accidents that have occurred in previous years per unit of road length in relation to the volume of traffic and, in case of intersections, the number of such accidents per location of intersections.

2.Identification of sections for analysis in network safety ranking

The identification of sections for analysis in network safety ranking takes into account their potential savings in accident costs. Road sections shall be classified into categories. For each category of roads, road sections shall be analysed and ranked according to safety-related factors, such as accidents concentration, traffic volume and traffic typology.

For each road category, network safety ranking shall result in a priority list of road sections where an improvement of the infrastructure is expected to be highly effective.

3.

Elements of evaluation for expert teams’ site visits:

  1. (a)

    a description of the road section;

  2. (b)

    a reference to possible previous reports on the same road section;

  3. (c)

    the analysis of possible accident reports;

  4. (d)

    the number of accidents, of fatalities and of severely injured persons in the three previous years;

  5. (e)

    a set of potential remedial measures for realisation within different timescales considering for example:

    • removing or protecting fixed roadside obstacles,

    • reducing speed limits and intensifying local speed enforcement,

    • improving visibility under different weather and light conditions,

    • improving safety condition of roadside equipment such as road restraint systems,

    • improving coherence, visibility, readability and position of road markings (incl. application of rumble strips), signs and signals,

    • protecting against rocks falling, landslips and avalanches,

    • improving grip/roughness of pavements,

    • redesigning road restraint systems,

    • providing and improving median protection,

    • changing the overtaking layout,

    • improving junctions, including road/rail level crossings,

    • changing the alignment,

    • changing width of road, adding hard shoulders,

    • installing traffic management and control systems,

    • reducing potential conflict with vulnerable road users,

    • upgrading the road to current design standards,

    • restoring or replacing pavements,

    • using intelligent road signs,

    • improving intelligent transport systems and telematics services for interoperability, emergency and signage purposes.