Road Safety for Managers 

From Diagnosis to Decision 

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  • Course code : RS-F1
  • Delivery: Online/Live
  • Language: English 
  • Starting Date:
    TBC
  • Registration Deadline:
    TBC
  • Total Duration:
    12 Hours (4x3 classes) 
  • Price :
    IRF Members : 850 CHF
    Others : 1100 CHF


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This course provides road agency managers with a practical, system-wide understanding of how to diagnose, manage, and improve road safety performance using the full suite of tools available to modern agencies. The programme emphasises operational decision-making, including how to interpret crash and risk data, screen networks for high-risk segments, deploy infrastructure diagnostic tools, and integrate safety into investment planning and maintenance programming.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will be able to :

Communicate safety risks, priorities, and recommendations clearly and persuasively 


Asses and select interventions that effectively mitigate risks to vulnerable road user group.

Communicate safety risks, priorities, and recommendations clearly and persuasively 

Develop robust and defendable investment cases for safer road treatments 

Evaluate and prioritise safety interventions using CBA and risk-based criteria.

Set ambitious requirements for design teams & contractors

Understand where and when to effect change for improved safety outcomes

Target Audience

This course is designed for professionals who influence, support, or oversee road safety-related decisions across the project lifecycle and on road networks in operation, including : 
Road agency managers, regional and district engineers, and staff with responsibility for network performance
Asset management and maintenance programme leads involved in planning, prioritisation, and resource allocation
Technical advisors and consultants working with road authorities on safety strategies, investment planning, or programme design
Road safety engineers, analysts, and specialists supporting diagnostics, audits, and evidence-based decision-making

Course Structure

 Class 1 - Road Safety Performance & Managerial Leverage

How managers influence road safety outcomes at network level

Key topics:

  • Shifting the mindset: from reactive responses to proactive safety management
  • Core road safety concepts for managers:
    • Risk, exposure and severity
    • Network-level vs site-level safety performance
  • Road Safety in the Project Lifecycle: how planning, design oversight, and operations & maintenance decisions shape road safety outcomes
  • Understanding where and when managerial action has the greatest impact
  • Positioning vulnerable road users as a strategic safety priority

Class 2 – Diagnosing Risk Using Data & Diagnostic Tools

From crash data to actionable insight

Key topics:

  • Making sense of crash and risk data:
    • What crash data can and cannot tell you
    • Accident analysis & human factors
    • Monitoring frameworks and performance indicators
  • Network screening approaches:
    • Identifying high-risk locations and corridors
    • Site investigations and safety reviews
    • Using risk indicators to support prioritisation
  • The strategic role of road safety audits:
    • Purpose, scope and limitations
    • Managerial responsibilities before and after audits

Class 3 – Selecting and Prioritising Safety Interventions

From diagnosis to treatments & investment decisions

Key topics:

  • Principles for selecting effective safety treatments
  • Matching interventions to risk types and user groups
  • Addressing risks to vulnerable road users through targeted measures
  • Avoiding politically attractive but low-impact solutions
  • Case exercises

Class 4: Investment, Operations & Continuous Improvement

Embedding safety into everyday management decisions
Key topics:
• Evaluating and prioritising interventions using cost–benefit analysis
• Building robust and defendable investment cases for road safety
• Translating safety benefits into funding and approval arguments
• Integrating safety into operations and maintenance
• Legal, economic and governance dimensions of road safety management
• Leadership reflection: accountability, culture and sustained improvement

Course Instructors

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Eur Ing Miguel-Angel Serrano Santos

MEng (Hons) CEng MICE CMgr MCMI FCIHT FSoRSA FASEVI

Miguel-Angel Serrano Santos is a distinguished Chartered Civil Engineer and internationally recognised authority in road safety. A graduate of the University of Granada in Spain, he currently serves as Lead Trainer for the International Road Federation (IRF).

His career spans over two decades across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, with notable leadership roles. He has played a pivotal role in fostering cross-border partnerships among engineering professionals and has delivered Traffic Management and Road Safety courses to students and practitioners worldwide.

Professor George Yannis

George Yannis is a Professor in Traffic and Safety Engineering and Director of Traffic Engineering Laboratory at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). He leads the NTUA Road Safety Observatory, a Center of Research and Innovation Excellence with global recognition for its highly valuable contribution to safer mobility for all, in Greece, in Europe and worldwide.

He has a thorough and broad understanding of the transportation sector, through his active involvement for more than 30 years as engineer, academic, advisor and decision maker in all areas of transportation planning and engineering at national and international level, with emphasis on data science.

Professor Marko Ševrović

Marko Ševrović is the Head of the Department of Transport Planning at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, University of Zagreb. He is also a Senior Road Safety Engineer at EIRA-EuroRAP and a Charted Engineer for Road Transport. He holds a PhD in the field of road transport and has over twenty years of experience working on different transport planning, road infrastructure design and road safety projects.


He also worked on several EU funded project related to the road infrastructure safety such as SENSOR, RADAR, SLAIN, NETSAFETY and currently Horizon Europe projects PHOEBE and ELABORATOR.

Dr. Craig Milligan, P. Eng.

Craig Milligan has completed more than 75 safety audits and in-service road safety reviews, and developed more than 200 collision prediction models for multiple jurisdictions. Craig previously held safety specialist positions with Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation and the World Bank, where he was the lead author of the road safety chapter on their flagship report for transport capital budget allocation decisions. He is a coauthor of numerous guidelines as well as peer-reviewed articles in top-ranked road safety journals, and has taught several undergraduate civil and transportation engineering courses at the University of Manitoba.
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