iRAP is proud to feature on this month’s NETS Talk Now: Driving Change Podcast discussing the impact of road infrastructure safety for fleet and community safety worldwide.

Guest presenter and iRAP CEO Rob McInerney said, “There is one thing everyone worldwide has in common – road trauma.”

“For those of you listening as you’re driving today, if you’re in a car or truck heading up to a sharp horizontal curve, you’re 6 times more likely to have a crash on that point of the road network, compared to a straight section of road. And we know that for all 50 road attributes and can bring that together into the Star Rating Model.

“Your risk of being killed or seriously injured in a crash is halved when you move from a 1-star road to a 2-star road. It’s halved again when you’re travelling on a 3-star road. Halved again going to a 4-star, and ultimately approaching zero risk of death or injury on a 5-star road. That’s the core of our programme globally (with a vision to eliminate high-risk roads).

“That information alone can be really valuable to fleets when training drivers, planning the safest routes from A to B, or making sure that everybody understands the risk they face on different roads. Not all roads are made equal. Some roads are more dangerous than others,” Mr McInerney said.

The episode covers:

• The true human and economic cost of road trauma for fleet companies and every country on earth.
• The opportunity for employers in traffic safety to understand the significant impact of roads on crash risk, travel time reliability from a logistics perspective and the impact on company insurance costs.
• How employers and corporates can make their operations and communities safer, and extend their impact globally.
• Private sector examples of companies such as FedEx, Johnson and Johnson and mining companies partnering with iRAP to improve fleet, road and school safety.
• iRAP’s methodology as the globally consistent road infrastructure safety standard adopted by UN Member States.
• Vaccines for Roads and the Road Safety Toolkit as valuable resources for global companies, fleet managers and road safety professionals to understand the risk they face in countries, the true human and financial cost of road trauma and the business case for safer roads.
• How iRAP is working with NETS Members and the private sector for global good – AiRAP, unlocking the power of big data and connecting it via a data marketplace with the people who can benefit from the information to make roads safer for all.
• Who iRAP is and the charity’s methodology and tools available to support industry, governments, mobility clubs, development banks, road safety NGOs and research organisations in more than 100 countries to make their roads safer.
• The global potential in terms of human and economic savings of achieving the UN Member States Targets of >75% of travel on 3-star or better roads by 2030.

“Road trauma is often the greatest workplace health and safety risk for employers. No country, no community, no employer can afford to be blind to this tragic social and financial cost,” Mr McInerney said.

“We have to personalise the road trauma pandemic and know that the solutions exist. Working together, we can take road infrastructure safety out of the blind spot and into the spotlight so that we can all better manage risk and ultimately encourage governments to eliminate high-risk roads,” he said.

The NETS Talk Now: Driving Change Podcast presents engaging conversations with global road safety leaders and innovators, with the goal of empowering the advancement of road safety for everyone.

The Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS) is a collaborative group whose mission is to advance road safety among all drivers, employees and their families, and the communities where employees live and work. NETS’ membership includes global traffic safety leaders across private industry and government, whose fleets range from fewer than 100 vehicles to more than 50,000.

To discover more ways to listen to the podcast or hear additional episodes click here.