Implementation of "Safe Road" Concept for Accident Prevention
BANDUNG, itb.ac.id–There are three major reasons why an accident may occur. For starters, the driver is unable to control the vehicle. Second, the driver is unable to comprehend the nature of the road and its surroundings, and third, the driver is unable to acknowledge the movements of other road users.
Achmad Wildan, ATD, M.Sc., a member of the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT), discussed this topic in a public lecture on "Safety Issue on the Aspect of Geometric Design of Road" on Monday (11/1/2021). The public lecture was organized by the Institut Teknologi Bandung’s (ITB) Civil Engineering Study Program and was led by Ir. R. Sony Sulaksono Wibowo, M.T., Ph.D., an ITB Civil Engineering lecturer.
The presentation on the definition of driving safety kicked off the public lecture. Driving safety, according to Achmad, is avoiding risks and dangers that can lead to accidents. To ensure driving safety, the developer of the safety program must be able to identify the risks and hazards that exist to protect drivers from dangers that can lead to accidents.
"We must be able to identify the risk. What are the risks? Then, decide on the best way to eliminate hazards and risks," said Achmad Wildan.
"The key concern with road safety issues in Indonesia is that we don't know what risks we face on the road," he went on to say.
He claimed that Indonesia's road safety program (RUNK, for example) has not focused on addressing existing hazards. Up to this point, Indonesian accident prevention measures have been based solely on the severity of the accident, failing to identify the cause of the accident.
The concept of Safe Roads can be used to reduce the risk of accidents and to prevent hazards. The Safe Road has three sequences: Regulating Road, Self-Explaining Road, and Forgiving Road.
The term "regulating road" refers to a road that complies with geometric rules and norms such as the road's cross-section, horizontal alignment, and vertical alignment. This is done to reduce the risk to the driver as much as possible. Although following these regulations, the roads will still have hazards, but the risk of an accident will be greatly reduced.
Self-Explaining Road can explain road conditions to drivers using warning signs to reduce the risk of accidents. This is accomplished by preparing drivers for hazards that may arise as a result of poor road conditions. The installed signs must tell the drivers about the existence of hazard and what the drivers should do.
Forgiving Road means that the road is capable of "forgiving" road users who have an accident, resulting in a lower fatality rate. This can be accomplished by incorporating rescue lanes and roadblocks.
Reporter: Favian Aldilla R (Civil Engineering, 2019)
Translator: Naffisa Adyan Fekranie (Oceanography, 2019)
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