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Analysis of regional accident records shows that a country’s national road safety programme does not have the same effect in each of its regions. What may be a serious problem in one region may be of marginal significance in another. Polish and international experience shows that main risk groups and types of accidents related to the level of development and quality of the road network differ from region to region. The conclusion is that a centrally run road safety policy does not always produce the expected outcomes. This suggests that more can be achieved with a combination of strategic (national) road safety management and tactical (regional) and operational (local) road safety efforts. Poland’s regional road safety programmes were found to lack an analysis of the effects of selected factors on safety or fatality forecast based on mathematical models. This calls for a scientific tool to support regional road safety management. The article uses the example of the region of Łódź to present the main road safety problems, analyse safety based on risk assessment, present the effects of selected factors on road user safety and forecast fatalities for different scenarios of treatments.

Horizontal curves, an element of road infrastructure, have a statistically high number of accidents. Considering that horizontal curves in the last ten years have had app. 10% of all road accidents representing app. 14% of all fatalities on Polish roads, the issue is serious and requires more research and proper road safety treatments. Data for 2007 - 2016 show that in the case of accidents on horizontal curves app. 45% of the fatalities happened as a result of crashing into roadside obstacles such as signs and first of all trees. This shows that horizontal curves require road safety equipment, and specifically, safety barriers. Key to this is using the right equipment and the right parameters. To achieve that, full-scale crash tests should be conducted to be followed by numerical tests. The article will present a synthesis of the available research conducted in Poland and abroad. An assessment will be made of four crash tests of TB32 with barriers that have a steel and cable guardrail. They are the outcome of the RID 3A “Road safety equipment” project called RoSE. Building on these tests, numerical test results will be presented.

The project RID 3A Road Safety Equipment (RoSE) implemented by the Gdansk University of Technology within the RID programme, aims to conduct a comprehensive study and analyses of different vehicle containment systems (PN-EN 1317) and types of support structures (PN-EN 12767) and their performance. Within the project an analysis will be conducted of available research reports and domestic and foreign experiences looking at road restraint systems and support structures applications. The paper will present a comparison of the guidelines and principles for the design and application of road restraint systems. Similarities and differences in the approach to different solutions will also be discussed. The above analyses will form the basis for the development of tools for selecting and applying road restraint systems in Poland.

Accidents that involve vehicles departing the road tend to have very high severity, as they often result in the vehicle hitting a permanent obstacle (which can be a tree, a pole, facility pillar, front wall of a culvert or a barrier). In recent years, this type of accident caused approx. 19% of all road deaths in Poland. A particularly high risk can be observed on roads located in northern and western voivodships, with many avenues of trees along the roadside. The paper will present the major road user hazards and their locations, based on the example of detailed analyses conducted for the area of the Warminsko-Mazurskie voivodship in Poland. In the paper, the authors will also present measures that can be applied to improve the safety of road users by improving roads managed by local governments in Warminsko-Mazurskie.

Commissioned by the National Road Safety Council Secretariat, the project “Guidelines for speed management on local government managed roads” studied car driver behaviour when subjected to selected speed management measures such as: local speed restrictions, surveillance, traffic calming and restricted speed areas. In addition, analyses were conducted on the impact of selected measures on the level of road safety. The behaviour was assessed by studying the changes in speed parameters (statistical characteristics) for the particular speed management measures or their absence. The road safety level was measured by comparing the level before and after the implementation of the particular speed management measure, taking trends into account. The paper presents the results of the research, along with recommendations for speed management guidelines.

Dimensional variability arises in AWJ system from uncontrolled factors intervention or due to the variability of input signals considered fixed or due to interactions of the input signals with unexpected effects, leading to deterioration of unpredictable outcome. Number of noise factors, negatively influence the results registered, dispersion of the result values is directly proportional to the number and their effect. Stochastic influence and his unpredictable nature determine a thorough research of the hydroabrasive process. The research refers to the study of dimensional variability for different configurations of hydroabrasive liquid pressure, abrasive type and traverse velocity. This is achieved by performing the experiments statistically processed by combining of control parameters, which allow favorable conclusions on reducing variability results and on optimizing the entire process of hydroabrasive machining.