Human Error and Road Transport : Phase Two – a Framework for an Error Tolerant Road Transport System

Within complex, sociotechnical systems, human error has consistently been implicated as the major causal factor in a high proportion of accidents and incidents. For example, recent research within the road transport domain indicates that driver error contributes to as much as 75% of all roadway crashes. This report represents the second phase of a research program of which the aim is to promote error tolerant intersections in Victoria and an error tolerant road transport system in Australia. Based on a review of the human error-related literature, a review of the human error-related research conducted to date and of the error management techniques that have previously been employed in other complex socio-technical systems, a conceptual framework for an error tolerant Australian road transport system was proposed. The proposed framework contains appropriate methods for the collection and analysis of human error-related data within the Australian road transport system, and also a number of error management approaches and strategies that could potentially be used to reduce or manage road user error and the conditions that lead to it. It is proposed that the framework for error tolerance be used during the next phase of this research program to inform the design of a pilot study of road user error and error-causing conditions at intersections in Victoria.