Safe System Approach

The Safe System approach aims to change the transportation system design and operation to anticipate human mistakes and minimize impact forces to reduce crash severity and save lives. Traditional road safety approaches strive to modify human behavior and prevent all crashes, the Safe System approach aims to eliminate fatal & serious injuries for all road users. It does so through a holistic view of the road system and shared responsibility.

This approach has six core principles that form a safety culture:

1. Death/Serious Injury is Unacceptable

2. Humans Make Mistakes

3. Humans are Vulnerable

4. Responsibility is shared

5. Safety is Proactive

6. Redundancy is Crucial

The Safe System Approach considers five elements of a safe transportation system including:

1. Safe Road Users

2. Safe Vehicles

3. Safe Speeds

4. Safe Roads

5. Post-Crash Care

The FHWA has prepared a two page brochure summarizing the Safe System approach: https://highways.dot.gov/sites/fhwa.dot.gov/files/2022-06/FHWA_SafeSystem_Brochure_V9_508_200717.pdf

Other sources of information to the Safe System Approach include: https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/zerodeaths/zero_deaths_vision.cfm