Britain has led the way in road safety audit and in 1990 the IHT published the first "Guidelines for the Safety Audit of Highways". A wealth of experience has been gained since then both in the UK and overseas so new Guidelines were published in November 1996 building on the recommendations in the IHT's "Review of Road Safety Audit Procedures" (1995). These Guidelines, published in 1996, describe best practice and make recommendations for safety audit procedures. They are a comprehensive guide to "engineering out" potentially unsafe features in new road schemes, improvements to existing roads, traffic management schemes and major maintenance projects. Following the guidance contained in this document will reduce the need to modify road schemes at a late stage in their development in order to improve safety.

The Safety Audit Guidelines answer such questions as:

What is road safety audit?
Who needs guidelines?
What should be audited?
When to undertake a safety audit? Who should audit?
What resources are needed?
What are the benefits?

These guidelines outline the:

decision-making process;
the principles and issues of safety audit;
the underlying concepts;
the consequences of audit; procedures and practice;
roles and responsibilities.

They recommend a Code of Good Practice covering:

managing safety audit;
development-led schemes;
selecting the teams;
the safety audit brief;
undertaking the audit;
responding to recommendations of audit.

They also detail:

safety principles and sources of information;
the follow-up to road safety audit;
monitoring individual schemes;
monitoring and evaluating procedures and practice;
legal implications;
the implications of the Health and Safety at Work Act and other regulations;
and the feedback from audits.

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