What can work health and safety learn from road safety?

Abstract

Work health and safety (WHS) and road safety are distinctive perspectives of public health but they share much in common. Both talk of incidents rather than accidents. Both are characterised by proactive rather than reactive responses. Both suffer from a tendency to normalise levels of risk and to prefer training of individuals over system-wide, integrated approaches. As well, compliance and enforcement are important in both WHS and road safety, and their hierarchies of control share many commonalities. A literature review and a series of workplace interviews identified where various aspects of WHS policy and practice could be reviewed in relation to the road safety experience, particularly in relation to how compliance and enforcement approaches work best, the use of rewards and incentives, making fuller use of violation data, establishing chains of responsibility, and looking beyond regulatory solutions. WHS data collection and analysis approaches could be reviewed with respect to optimising use of auditing programs and considering employing non-traditional WHS performance indicators.