ISO 39001:2012

Road traffic safety (RTS) management systems — Requirements with guidance for use

ISO 39001 is the template for best practice road traffic safety management in an organizational context. This document provides pointers for organizations wishing to use ISO 39001 to improve

their road safety performance. The guide provides a brief introduction to what is involved in developing and implementing an ISO 39001 road traffic safety management system and encourages

further enquiry and consideration.

Preventing death and serious injury in road traffic crashes is a global priority

- Death and serious injury in road traffic crashes is a preventable problem imposing an unacceptably high burden on communities throughout the world.

- UN Sustainable Development Goals for road safety were agreed in 2015.

- Organizations can play a key role in improving road safety outcomes in low, middle and high-income countries.

Addressing a primary occupational safety risk

- Road traffic injury is a leading cause of work-related death and serious injury.

- Continual improvement is needed to reduce and ultimately prevent road traffic deaths and serious injuries.
- ISO 39001 assists organizations in addressing road traffic injury risk, both on the network and in the workplace.

Successful road injury prevention requires management

- Effective road safety management requires a systematic, results-focused approach.

- Organizations of all sizes can contribute to addressing global, regional and national goals, targets and objectives for road safety.

- ISO 39001 aligns with the best practice Safe System approach to road safety and the latest

- ISO management system standard framework. Its best practice road safety focused content is not found in management system standards on occupational health and safety.

The Safe System approach

The ultimate goal under the Safe System approach goal is to eliminate road fatalities and serious injuries, supported in the interim by periodic, quantitative targets to reduce deaths and serious injuries, as well as those factors that are causally linked to them.

Safe System intervention addresses all elements of the road traffic system and their linkages - road infrastructure, vehicles, the emergency medical system, and road users. ISO 39001 provides a management tool to ensure the best possible results from these endeavors.

Inspired by the reframing of road safety as a societal health issue in the best performing countries, the core of the ‘Safe System’ approach is the design and management of a road traffic system better able to accommodate human error and recognize the physical vulnerabilities of road users. This is primarily through managing crash energy, so that no individual road user is exposed to crash forces likely to result in death or serious injury.

RTS performance factors

• Risk exposure factors

-Traffic volume and traffic mileage by vehicle and road user type

- Volume of product and/or service provided by the organization

• Final safety outcome factors

- The number of deaths and serious injuries

• Intermediate safety outcome factors

- The safe planning, design, operation and use of the road network

- The safe entry and exit of vehicles and road users to the road network

- The recovery and rehabilitation of road traffic crash victims for the road network

Emergency preparedness and response

• Organizations shall respond to actual death and serious injuries caused by road traffic crashes/incidents in which the organization is involved

• Where practicable steps should be taken to prevent or mitigate adverse associated impacts on road traffic safety

• Procedures should be periodically reviewed and revised (where necessary), in particular after such occurrences of deaths and serious injuries

• Periodic tests to demonstrate the effectiveness of these procedures are also required where practicable.