Road safety audit in Songkhla province
การตรวจสอบความปลอดภัยของถนนในจังหวัดสงขลา

Wiwat Sutiwipakorn, D. of Civil Eng., F. of Eng., PSU.
Sakchai Prechaverakul, D. of Civil Eng., F. of Eng., PSU.
Corresponding e-mail : swiwat@ratree.psu.ac.th

Grant : National Health Foundation
Presented : Engineering Institute of Thailand (EIT) Conference, North Eastern Branch "Engineering in the New Millennium", 25 Jan. 2000, Faculty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University
Key words : road safety audit, traffic accident

Road traffic accident is Thailand's prominent health problem. Reported annual economic losses to the country are in the order of over one hundred thousand million Baht. Causes of accidents are usually categorized into Road Users, Vehicles and Roads/Environment. Most studies indicate Road Users as the major cause, however, combined factors of Road Users and Roads are reported to be 24% and 27% in the U.K. and the U.S. respectively. Thailand, under established both in physical and human development, should do well in looking into this matter more. On the engineering side, road improvement studies are considered and Road Safety Audit (RSA) is a recent tool. RSA in developed nations are commonly conducted for all stages prior to road opening to the public, however, RSA for Songkhla province in this paper is done on existing roads. Due to over 700 km in length of Depart- ment of Highway (DOH) main roads in the province, the study has to be confined only to sections where they are rated as more hazardous. An attempt has been made to prioritize sections (intersec- tions, curves and straights) with more needs to be improved. Certain hazards started from incomplete/inappropriate layouts and road furnitures. In this new millennium, RSA should be conducted for new roads in all 5 stages starting from Feasibility, Draft Design, Detailed Design and Pre-opening Stages, in addition to the Post-opening or Existing Stage as carried out in this sample study.

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