Building the Road Safety Profession in the Public Sector: Special Report 289 (2007)

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APPENDIX B Summary of Highway Safety Core Competencies from NCHRP Research Results Digest 302 CORE COMPETENCY 1 Understand the management of highway safety as a complex multi- disciplinary system. Learning Objectives Highway safety professionals should be able to a. Describe highway safety as a complex, interdisciplinary, multimodal discipline devoted to the avoidance and/or mitigation of fatalities, injuries, and crashes. b. Understand, value, and utilize science-based highway safety research and its application in highway safety. c. Describe the demographic trends underlying the need for compre- hensive and integrated highway safety management (e.g., social, cul- tural, age, gender). d. Describe the classification of highway crash and injury severity factors and their relationship to the crash event (i.e., precrash, crash, and post- crash) by using models such as the Haddon Matrix. e. Identify how crash contributing factors interact. f. Explain how effective safety management can be used to prevent mor- bidity and mortality associated with crash events. g. Explain the “Four E’s” of traffic safety: engineering, education, enforcement, and emergency medical services. h. Recognize the effectiveness of combining countermeasures/ interventions to achieve improvements in safety. 89 

90 Building the Road Safety Profession in the Public Sector i. Recognize how highway user decision making is influenced by high- way design, transportation planning, traffic operations, and vehicle design. j. Recognize the barriers that hinder collaboration across and within institutions. k. Identify and demonstrate opportunities and the ability to improve safety through collaboration with individuals from diverse cultural, disciplinary, and educational backgrounds and institutions. CORE COMPETENCY 2 Understand and be able to explain the history of highway safety and the institutional settings in which safety management decisions are made. Learning Objectives Highway safety professionals should be able to a. Understand the historical figures, benchmarks, and decisions under- lying highway safety. b. Identify the safety aspects of major transportation legislation. c. List and describe the goals of interest groups with a stake in safety- related policy, legislation, and investment decisions. d. Describe the institutional roles and responsibilities within which safety is managed (e.g., local, regional, state, and federal government, trans- portation modes, and the private sector). e. Explain and provide examples of the importance of highway safety relative to other transportation priorities (e.g., congestion mitigation, environmental protection, air quality, economic prosperity). f. Identify the availability of current highway safety training and educa- tion programs. CORE COMPETENCY 3 Understand the origins and characteristics of traffic safety data and infor- mation systems to support decisions using a data-driven approach in managing highway safety. 

Summary of Highway Safety Core Competencies 91 Learning Objectives Highway safety professionals should be able to a. Describe state and local information systems and data elements that can be used for safety management (e.g., crash, roadway inventory, driver/vehicle registration, citation, hospital/EMS, surveys, operations data, etc.). b. Describe the specialized national databases available for safety man- agement and how they address deficiencies in the systems above (e.g., FARS, GES, CVISN, and WISQARS). c. Describe the process by which crash data are collected, including con- straints associated with accurate, reliable field data. d. For each of the information systems, describe strengths and weaknesses as well as opportunities for improvements (compliance with MMUCC and NEMSIS and automated collection methods). e. Access and use traffic safety and public health data systems for identi- fying and tracking crash trends, targeting high-risk groups, and plan- ning programs at the national, state, and local levels. f. Describe the importance of using crash injury or fatality data to evaluate the implications of safety management actions, policies, and programs. CORE COMPETENCY 4 Demonstrate the knowledge and skills to assess factors contributing to highway crashes, injuries, and fatalities, identify potential countermeasures linked to the contributing factors, apply countermeasures to user groups or sites with promise of crash and injury reduction, and implement and evaluate the effectiveness of the countermeasures. Learning Objectives Highway safety professionals should be able to a. Identify current and potential highway safety problems using suit- able scientific methods (e.g., those controlling for regression-to-the- mean). 

92 Building the Road Safety Profession in the Public Sector b. Identify the linkages among human factors and behavior, vehicle design, roadway design, and the environment and their interactions with respect to identified crash problems. c. Identify effective countermeasures that address specific crash factors. d. Establish priorities for alternative interventions/countermeasures based upon their expected cost and effectiveness and select countermeasures to implement (e.g., utilizing current science-based research methods such as NCHRP Report 500 series and NHTSA/FHWA Highway Safety Guidelines). e. Evaluate the effectiveness of the implemented intervention/counter- measure using appropriate statistical techniques in safety management [e.g., use of Empirical Bayes (EB) and/or case-control designs]. f. Understand the importance of computing the expected safety benefit/ cost associated with implementing a countermeasure as the difference between the crashes, fatalities, and injuries likely to occur with the coun- termeasure in place and the number of crashes, fatalities, and injuries expected to occur if the countermeasure were not implemented. CORE COMPETENCY 5 Be able to develop, implement, and manage a highway safety manage- ment program. Learning Objectives Highway safety professionals should be able to a. Utilize scientific management techniques in planning, implementing, and evaluating highway safety programs. b. Identify strategies to integrate and amplify safety in transportation planning processes. c. Explain the need to provide leadership and funding for ongoing service/support enhancements such as professional development, staff education and training, upgraded computer hardware and software, and more. d. Establish multidisciplinary relationships necessary to support effective highway safety initiatives. 

Summary of Highway Safety Core Competencies 93 e. Identify opportunities for internal and external coalition-building and strategic communications for highway safety initiatives. f. Identify sources of current research that support effective highway safety management (e.g., NCHRP Report 501, TRIS, Accident Analysis and Prevention, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Review, SAE, Injury Prevention). g. Understand the value of leveraging resources for highway safety pro- gram implementation. h. Assess and promote effective outreach/public involvement program development and implementation.