While leading her new pupils past the headmistress' study, Muriel Spark's tragic heroine Miss Jean Brodie stopped and pointed to a large poster therein. Below a man's big face, it carried the words ‘safety first’. She explained that the man was Stanley Baldwin and that the headmistress retained his picture on her wall because she believed in the slogan ‘safety first’. ‘But’, Miss Brodie declares, ‘Safety does not come first. Goodness, Truth and Beauty come first.’1
What weight to place on Miss Brodie's enunciation is for those who have read Miss Spark's book to judge, but readers may wonder whether if goodness, truth and beauty were given first place, safety would look after itself. Unfortunately, in an increasingly litigious society, in which the former qualities appear to be losing ground, municipal engineers cannot afford to dismiss safety so lightly. Indeed, for many it is the focus of their professional lives. But what is safety? The Oxford English dictionary offers ‘the condition of being safe’, which is hardly more helpful than the alternative, ‘freedom from danger or risks’.
Ezra Hauer comes to the rescue, with a whole chapter in his book on road safety studies dedicated to defining safety in that context.2 He concludes that, ‘safety is an expected accident frequency’, a definition which might be applicable across the entire spectrum of human endeavour. Readers may wish to bear Muriel Spark's ranking and Ezra Hauer's definition of safety in mind, as they explore this dedicated issue.
There are two briefing papers. The first is from the Institution of Civil Engineers' (ICE) Health and Safety Board. In his paper, Peter Fry explains the background to and purpose of the ICE's Health and Safety Register, and announces the admission of the first four candidates to it. Design has been identified as a major contributor to the death toll in the construction industry, and the register provides clients with the means to identify individuals who have demonstrated a defined level of competence in construction health and safety.
In the second briefing paper, Robert Huxford summarises the Department for Transport's discussion document on walking. The need for an approach to land-use planning that reduces journey length seems to be the key, but this raises a host of questions. The question of safety is not least amongst them at a time when it is safer for a child to travel to school by car rather than on foot.
The papers start with a bang. Tom O'Brien's relates to the now traditional concert and fireworks display with which the Edinburgh International Festival ends each year. While goodness, truth and beauty are no doubt inherent in the spectacle, Tom O'Brien's prime concern is public safety. He makes light of it, but not the least of his problems is that the event occurs at night. The management of traffic, street furniture, temporary structures, crowds, firework debris, litter and emergency services is a formidable task. Add the vagaries of the climate, and the importance of the event safety plan and de-briefing sessions described in the paper becomes clear.
It is to China, where fireworks appear first to have been used (to ward off evil spirits), that we turn for the next paper. Messrs. Fang, Zhang and Vickridge describe the evolution of health and safety legislation designed to promote construction safety in what has become the largest construction site in the world. Chinese carpenters appear to have led the way in construction safety during the Song dynasty but, by 1990, the fatality rate was still a frightening 13·7 per 100 000 people. Readers will find that the problems that the legislation is intended to address sound all too familiar. The authors cite poor performance by administrators as the crux of China's problem, and recommend greater co-operation amongst the administering agencies. They suggest that precise data are required in order to inform policies. Corruption is also cited, but it is recognised that this is not unique to China. Indeed, it is a problem with all developing countries, perhaps the worse for those who join the global economy too soon.3
John Anderson's paper brings us up-to-date with the situation within the United Kingdom's construction industry. Mr. Anderson lists the diversities that complicate the management of construction health and safety. He echoes Messrs. Fang, Zhang and Vickridge's recommendation for greater co-operation amongst the wide range of bodies involved and makes a clarion call to radical action from the leaders of a movement for change, if they would just identify themselves.
No issue dedicated to safety would be complete without reference to one of the most dangerous of the environments most of us encounter on a daily basis. The road environment ranks second only to that of the home in terms of numbers accidentally killed. It ranks fourth after home, work and sport in terms of accidental injuries treated in hospitals.4 In 2000, the United Kingdom (UK) road death rate was 6·0 per 100 000 population, while that of the Irish Republic was an even more worrying 11·0.5
In their paper, Messrs. Proctor and Crowley provide a summary of the situation in the Republic. Practitioners in the UK and elsewhere will see parallels with their own. As did Fang et al. In the construction arena, they recognise the importance of the quality of the accident recording system. UK practitioners, traumatised by the current five-year review of their system, will become green with envy when they read of the Irish Republic's considerable advantage, namely the existence of a national police force. How much easier it must be to modernise national data collection systems in those circumstances. With the publication of their Department for Transport's new circular on road safety audit in mind, UK practitioners will also be interested in the alternative, more co-operative approach to which Messrs. Proctor and Crowley refer.
Staying with road safety, and if the deteriorating visual environment is any indication, Dr Brendan Wallace's paper on external-to-vehicle driver distraction has appeared not a moment too soon. Goodness and truth are not attributes generally ascribable to outdoor advertising, although the content might sometimes be regarded as beautiful. But all advertisements, from road signs to rotating billboards are designed to attract attention. It follows, therefore, that they must also distract attention from some other task. If that task is driving, then surely distraction must increase risk.
Dr Wallace's paper takes us quickly through the studies and experiments executed to date, warning of the temptation to suppose causation from correlation in the former and of the problem of ecological validity in the latter. He describes and discusses those psychological theories that may be of relevance to the phenomena observed, and does, indeed, conclude that outdoor advertising can be a threat to safety. The threat may be site specific—it is notable that Miss Brodie's ‘safety first’ poster was not aimed at distracting drivers—but it is real. Dr Wallace notes that the whole subject is under-researched, and suggests that with developments in virtual reality technology and the large body of research into visual processing now available, the time is ripe to integrate theory and practice, and to create a predictive model of driver distraction.
Phil Jones, in his challenging paper, notes (as does Dr Wallace) the increasing complexity of the urban street. He describes a model of the engineering process, which municipal engineers may or may not recognise, and suggests that it is inadequate to the task of designing safe streets, in which human behavioural matters dominate. The derivation and application of road design standards, the benefits of traffic segregation and the safety audit process are questioned, and the lack of a scientific basis for the latter is highlighted. Authors of the Design Manual for Road and Bridges, beware! A call is made for more research into the real relationship between road design and accident risk, and while municipal engineers may take issue with some of Mr Jones' statements, few would disagree with that.
Keeping an eye on the streets is the subject of Simon Bowers' paper. Mr Bowers provides a comprehensive guide to the design, installation and operation of a closed circuit television (CCTV) system based on his experience in Daventry during 2001. The paper details first the changes in legislation, which now place a duty upon local authorities to act to control crime; second, the development of a co-operative approach during scheme inception; and third, the system design. During the latter, readers are introduced to the Rotakin, a photogenic device the use of which is fundamental to system specification and performance testing. Mr Bowers very detailed paper describes four strands to the multi-agency approach required, takes us through the procurement and construction process, discusses the systems uses and outcomes, and does not forget that the reduction in recorded crime might not necessarily be attributable in its entirety to CCTV. Jean Brodie would have approved.
The last of the papers, contributed by Messrs. Kelman and Spence, reminds us that our homes may not be the place of safety we imagine. As we are warned to expect a wetter future, it may be time to consider to what extent our homes are vulnerable to floodwater. The principal sources of pressure differential imposed on buildings by floods are identified, and their impacts upon buildings' various components are described. The limitations of current British Standards are discussed. It is recognised that it may not be appropriate to develop new ones for each component. In an arena already overflowing with uncertainties, and in which there is currently no systematic means of identifying or categorising potential failure modes in floods, however, British Standards could provide an appropriate mechanism if they took the form of a rating system with guidelines. These could be developed such that buildings could be classified according to their flood safety. The subject of the paper, a flood failure flowchart, is presented as a means of providing an insight into the main failure modes that should be quantified in detail. Thereafter, decisions could be made on the appropriate type and level of action.
Finally, Peter Hallsworth reviews Martin Rogers book Highway Engineering and, recognising the tendency for engineers to specialise, suggests that this volume would be a valuable addition to any practising engineer's bookshelf. No reference appears to have been made therein to Goodness, Truth or Beauty, but it is noted that the Highways Agency places Safety amongst the headings Environment, Economy, Accessibility and Integration. Had she not been the product of a classical education, one wonders what Jean Brodie would have made of that!
