E – 1966 The Safe System Approach to Traffic Safety

In this online engineering PDH course, the Safe System approach to traffic safety is presented. The goal of the approach is to reduce death and serious injuries through design that accommodates human mistakes and injury tolerances. The principles upon which Safe System is founded are 1) death/serious injury is unacceptable, 2) humans make mistakes, 3) humans are vulnerable, 4) responsibility is shared, 5) safety is proactive, and 6) redundancy is crucial. The elements used to implement the Safe System approach are safe road users, safe vehicles, safe speed, safe roads, and post-crash care.

This course is based on the Federal Highway Administration slide deck, “The Safe System Approach Presentation,” last updated on January 6, 2023,

This course is intended for civil and transportation engineers interested in increasing their knowledge about the Safe System approach to traffic safety.