Description

This theme establishes a comprehensive scientific, analytical, behavioural, and engineering framework for understanding, predicting, evaluating, and preventing road traffic crashes and their associated consequences. It integrates traditional road safety engineering principles with contemporary statistical modelling, traffic conflict analysis, surrogate safety measures, vehicle kinematics, human factors, intelligent transportation systems, and artificial intelligence-based predictive analytics. The theme examines the complex interactions among roadway geometric characteristics, traffic flow conditions, driver behaviour, vehicle performance, environmental influences, infrastructure deficiencies, and traffic management strategies that contribute to crash occurrence and injury severity. Particular emphasis is placed on transitioning from reactive safety assessment, which primarily relies on historical crash records, toward proactive and predictive approaches