STC Safety Engineering Education Course

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Highway safety has been the focus of the research and practicing community for decades. Several academic programs have attempted to address the need for increased awareness and education of engineering students on the issues of highway safety. Practitioners agree that it is imperative for professionals entering the workforce to be familiar with the highway safety issues and concepts, and they should be aware of recent advances in highway safety.

The Southeastern Transportation Center has long been an advocate for highway safety in education. The higher fatality rates of the Southeastern states point to the need for development of a college level course to educate future professionals on the issues of highway safety, and ensure that graduates have at least a basic background on highway safety and associated issues.

The main goal of this activity is to develop a web-based safety course appropriate for graduate students. The course material was developed in a modular fashion allowing instructors to select those appropriate with their curriculum providing instructors with flexibility in selecting appropriate modules to fit their students.

The course contents include an understanding of the multidisciplinary nature of highway safety, comprehension of the various contributing factors to crashes, ability to identify potential countermeasures, comprehension of data sources and potential issues with their use, and understanding of the institutional settings for safety management decisions. Practices and procedures used in the Highway Safety Manual are also included.

The teaching package developed as part of this effort includes lecture notes in PowerPoint presentation format accompanied with instructor notes that identify the main points in each slide and frequent provide questions to stimulate student participation and interaction.