Hazard Risk Management Essay

1. Introduction.
1.1 General
In relation to safety barriers, a hazard is an object, area or condition that can cause serious injury or loss of life for vehicle occupants should a vehicle leave the travelled way and drive into or across the hazard. In assessing the roadside for hazards, a risk management process should be used.
Risk Management is the culture, processes and structures that are directed towards realizing potential opportunities whilst managing adverse effects. The risk management process is the systematic application of management policies, procedures and practices to the tasks of communicating, establishing the context, identifying, analyzing, evaluating, treating, monitoring and reviewing risk (refer AS/NZS 4360:2004).
The

These hazards may already exist within the roadside, or may be structures or formations proposed as part of a conceptual or detailed road design. The steps comprise:
1.3.1 Identify The Hazard
Hazards are identified considering crash history, traffic volumes and speeds, clear zone, road geometry, roadside topography, surface condition, and the expected severity outcome of crashes into the roadside hazard.
An accident history is the strongest indication that a hazardous situation exists at a site and that there is a need for improvement. Consequently, crash records have traditionally been used to establish priorities for treatment under accident black spot programs.
However, for the design of new roads, and for existing roads that have roadside hazards but no crash record, the hazard identification process shown in Figure 2.2 and a risk management approach is used to determine the priority for improvement. Where individual sites may not have an accident problem but collectively the road feature is known to have a worrying incidence of crashes (e.g. bridge end posts), a ‘Mass Action’ approach may be taken where sites are grouped for the purpose of hazard identification and evaluation (Austroads, GTEP, Part 4, Treatment of Crash Locations,