Road Safety Authority Annual Conference - Tackling Speeding – Risk Factors and Interventions.

The Road Safety Authority hosted their Annual Conference today 26 October 2022. This year’s Annual Conference focused on Tackling Speeding – Risk Factors and Interventions.

Delegates attending the in person and  virtual event heard from experts at home including the RSA, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, the HSE and Ireland’s Love 30 Campaign. 

International experts also made presentations including Rod King MBE. Rod has played an instrumental role in empowering local communities in the UK to implement 30km/h speed zones. Dr Judy Fleiter, Global Manager with the Global Road Safety Partnership will discuss the motivations for speed choices on the road. Guro Ranes, Director of Road Traffic Safety, Norwegian Public Roads Administration who discuss Norway’s approach in tackling speeding with a particular focus on graduated speeding.

The World Health Organisation has estimated that a 5% reduction in average speed could result in a 30% reduction in fatal collisions, and therefore reducing motorists’ speed is essential to improving safety on our roads.

The Master of Ceremonies was Oliver Carsten, Professor of Transport Safety at the Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds. Oliver Carsten is Professor of Transport Safety at the Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds. His major research focus is on driver interaction and safety with new driver support systems. He led the UK national project on Intelligent Speed Assistance and has acted as chair of the Road User Behaviour Working Party of PACTS, the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety.

The RSA’s Annual Academic Road Safety Lecture, heard insights on the subject of speeding from international and national experts under 3 Sessions.

Session 1 Understanding Speeding

Sam Waide CEO, Road Safety Authority

Sam Waide is the Chief Executive and Accounting Officer of the Road Safety Authority (RSA) in Ireland. As part of the Vision Zero 2050 challenge to have zero fatalities on our roads, Sam is leading on the delivery of the Government’s Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030, working in partnership with key agencies to achieve Programme for Government outcomes of 50 per cent reduction in serious injuries and fatalities by 2030.

Please also find the slides to Sam's presentation here

Velma Burns, Research Manager, Road Safety Authority

Velma Burns has been Research Manager of the Road Safety Authority since 2013, during which time she has overseen the implementation of a programme of data analysis and research activity to support the RSA in the development of evidence-based interventions to help reduce death and injury on Irish roads.

Please also find the slides to Velma's presentation here

Dr. Judy Fleiter, Global Manager, Global Road Safety Partnership

Dr Fleiter has worked in the field of road safety for twenty years. She joined the Global Road Safety Partnership in 2016, where she manages a Road Policing Capacity Building Programme, a Road Safety Advocacy Grants Programme, and with Johns Hopkins University colleagues, co-hosts and co-delivers a range of road safety leadership courses. Judy’s career contribution to international road safety was recently recognised by the 2022 Australasian College of Road Safety Fellowship award – the Australasian road safety community’s highest honour for an individual’s outstanding commitment and effectiveness in their efforts to reduce road trauma.

Please also find the video to Judy's presentation here

Please find the video presentations to session 1 below here

Session 2 - Speed Interventions

Guro Ranes, Director of Road Traffic Safety, Norway

Guro Ranes has been the Director of Road Traffic Safety in the Norwegian Public Roads Administration since January 2010. Guro Ranes graduated as a civil engineer from Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 1989. After working as a private consultant for six years, she joined the Norwegian Public Roads Administration in 1996 with road traffic safety as her main area of work.

Please also find the slides to Guro's presentation here

Rod King MBE, Founder and Campaign Director, 20’s Plenty for Us/Love 30

Rod King set up 20’s Plenty for Us in 2007 in order to assist communities wanting 20mph or 30km/h speed limits for most urban/village roads across a complete local authority. It now has over 650 local campaigns in UK, Ireland, USA, Canada and Australia. Rod has worked with local authorities across the UK where now 42% of population live in authorities with a 20mph default policy. This includes Wales which is changing the national urban/village speed limit from 30mph to 20mph.

Please also find the slides to Rod's presentation here

Alastair de Beer, Head of Road Safety, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and Dr Suzanne Meade, Senior Road Safety Engineer, TII

Alastair is the Head of Road Safety in Transport Infrastructure Ireland. He qualified as a Civil Engineer from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa before moving to Ireland in 2002, where he worked for Kildare County Council. In 2006 he moved to the NRA, now Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII). During his time in TII, Alastair has worked in Engineering Standards and Road Safety and has a Master’s Degree in Health and Safety.

Suzanne is a road safety specialist at Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and manages the road safety improvement scheme programme. She is a Chartered Engineer and holds a PhD and MSc is transport planning and engineering. She has over 20 years experience and prior to joining TII she was a research fellow and lecturer at the Transport Research Institute at Edinburgh Napier University.

Please also find the slides to Alastair and Suzanne's presentation here

Superintendent Sean Fallon, Garda National Roads Policing Bureau, An Garda Síochána

Superintendent Sean Fallon leads out on training, information led policing practices and media engagement at the Garda National Roads Policing Bureau. Superintendent Fallon has a broad background in policing having previously had roles at local, national and international level. In keeping with An Garda Síochána’s mission of “keeping people safe” Superintendent Fallon collaborates with RSA, local authorities and community safety partners to develop problem orientated policing solutions and support community orientated policing initiatives.

Please also find the slides to Sean's presentation here

Please find the video presentations to session 2 below here

Session 3 Impact of Speeding

Donna Price, Founder & Chairperson, International Road Victims’ Partnership,

Donna Price founded the Irish Road Victims’ Association (IRVA) in 2012 following the Coroner’s inquest into the sudden death of her 18 year old son Darren in a road crash in March 2006, and is chairperson of the organisation - the national charity for road crash victims in Ireland. IRVA provides free information and support including bereavement counselling and legal advice to victims and their families and assists families at every stage of Garda investigations, Coroner’s inquests and civil and criminal legal proceedings.

Member of the UNRSC, Irish Road Victims’ Association

Keith Synnott FCSCI (Tr&Orth), Consultant Orthopaedic and Spine Surgeon,National Clinical Lead for Trauma Services

Mr Keith Synnott is a consultant Trauma, Orthopaedic and Spine surgeon working in the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Cappagh National Orthopaedic Hospital and the National Rehabilitation Hospital. A graduate of the Higher 

Surgical Training scheme in RCSI and subsequently received fellowship training in the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. Keith has a particular interest in education and served as Training Program Director for Trauma and 

Orthopaedics for 6 years and is of RCSI council. Winner of the Sir Walter Mercer medal for the intercollegiate examination in Trauma and Orthopaedics and has been an examiner in that examination for 10 years.

Please also find the slides to Keith's presentation here

Mairéad Forsythe and Justin Fleming, Love 30 Campaign for 30 km/h Speed Limits

Mairéad Forsythe is a founder member and lead campaigner for the Love 30 Campaign for 30 km/h speed limits. Mairéad is a retired civil servant who got involved in cycle campaigning and soon realised that one of the keys to safer streets is  widespread 30 km/h speed limits in built-up areas, outside schools and in other places where people congregate. The Love 30 group has been campaigning for a national default limit of 30 km/h in built-up areas.

Justin Fleming is a planner, working in local government. A member of the Irish Planning Institute and Love 30, Justin previously served as campaign manager for a first-time female candidate’s successful local election campaign in 2019. Justin has lived and worked in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Waterford and Westmeath, including working from home in a rural area during the COVID-19 restrictions.

Please also find the slides to Mairéad presentation here and Justin's presentation here

Please find the video presentation to session 3 below here

Video presentations to follow for each speaker

A detailed agenda including the speakers biographies and abstracts can be downloaded here