Assessing the Role of Management and Safety Engineering in Driving Safety Improvement in Iran

Traffic accident, as a world concern, is a distress and is expanding in developing countries. It is determined as one of the four main threatening factors of human health by UN and WHO. Planning for driving safety improvement requires concentration on two main topics: engineering safety and management safety. Based on experiences in different countries, safety management with the aim of coordination and resembling activities among responsible organizations is essential to reach sustainable safety in driving. Iran's successful experience at macro-management in driving safety has been achieved after establishing Road Safety Commission (RSC) in 1382. After establishing RSC, the members reached to a single agreement for their planning and specific plans were prepared and implemented. These plans include call preparation of Road Safety Strategic Plan (RSSP), accident data bank plan preparation and analyzing, execution of special plans in special holidays and planning coordination between members to implement safety plans in road networks. Compared to the third developing plan, the number of accident fatalities decreased 3.7% during the fourth developing plan. Also, fatality per 10/000 vehicles index decreased more than 40% during the fourth developing plan. The present paper, while reviewing driving accident statistics, illustrates the results of successful driving safety management.