THE EGYPTIAN EXPERIMENT OF THE ROAD SAFETY SYSTEM

This paper briefly describes the Egyptian experience of road safety systems. Although several studies were attempted in the 1960s, a practical and integrated approach was not applied until the early 1980s, when the Egyptian Academy for Scientific Research and Technology and the Transport and Road Research Laboratory combined their efforts in Egypt into one research project aiming to develop a road safety system for Egypt. The paper describes the four phases of the project: (1) extending an accident report sheet to an accident report booklet; (2) developing three additional accident booklets; (3) system implementation; (4) investigation of possible future developments. The paper states the main characteristics of the phases, together with the reasons why the study team moved from one phase to the next. Rather than presenting specific results, it discusses how the experienced gained from the research could significantly help other African countries. The study team urges African countries to develop a unified approach to accident analysis which could be achieved by: (1) exchanging ideas about existing accident reporting systems; (2) making the necessary modifications to design a unified reporting system for African countries; (3) developing a data base for African accidents. Paper presented at the Second ECA/OECD African Road Safety Congress, Addis Ababa, 16-20th October 1989.