Experienced QHSSE Manager at SWARCO with over 12 years' experience in health & safety, specialising in transport safety and Intelligent Transport Systems, with a strong track record of driving safety culture, compliance, and innovative risk management in complex environments.
The aim of the study was to develop a system that would streamline incident investigations in road safety in Ireland that would allow for a quicker classification of incidents and a more standardised incident investigation process. This would be achieved through the completion of a set of tasks, developing a STAMP control structure for road safety in Ireland, analysing five incidents using AcciMap and STAMP and then comparing these methods with a set of recommendations being produced. The incidents analysed were from the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) industry and highlighted the gaps that might be experienced should autonomous vehicles be introduced in Ireland.
The STAMP control structure creation used a Delphi study using a Likert scale of agreement in an interview format with nine participants as depicted in the below relationship map. General consensus of approval was achieved through the first round of interviews, however a second round of interviews was undertaken with the aim to further improve the control structure.
The Delphi study produced a mean agreement of 81% after the first round of interviews. After a further round, the results returned a 96% mean agreement. There was a significant improvement made to the structure – achieved through this process. This improvement is depicted in the two images below.
AcciMap found 23% more contributory factors however there was only 8.4% difference between unique categories of contributory factors. This showed that whilst STAMP may not have identified as many contributory factors, it performed well in identifying unique contributory factors.
There was a 42% overlap in contributory factors between the two methods demonstrating their complementary nature, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.
Whilst there were limitations of only one reviewer and classifier of incidents and limited variation in participants in the Delphi study the STAMP structure produced through this project has significant potential. The STAMP structure requires further development with the prospect of becoming the standard for investigating all road safety incidents in Ireland and potentially improving overall road safety.
