Pacific Island Countries (PICs) are among the countries with highest rates of road crash fatalities in the world, despite their low population. However, there are many reasons to believe that the numbers in these countries are significantly underreported. Road crashes are currently resulting in high costs to already strained national economies. This indicates the scale and significance of the road safety problem for PICs’ communities.  

Through its call for proposals, the GRSF awarded a grant funded by UK Aid to review the management capacity of three selected Pacific Island Countries – Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. The main objective of this grant was to gain a holistic and thorough understanding of the road safety management capacity of each of the selected countries, in order to support their respective governments to develop national strategies and plans of action to improve road safety outcomes, with a focus on crash data management. In addition, the grant supported a pilot on the World Bank’s “Data for Road Incident Visualization, Evaluation, and Reporting” (DRIVER) in Samoa, together with providing hands on capacity building on road safety evidence-based measures and crash investigation. 

Lessons learned from this grant activity are being shared with other PICs facing similar challenges and traffic conditions. 

Aside from the delivery of the Road Safety Management Capacity Reviews, a 2-day tailored workshop on road safety evidence-based measures was delivered for each country. In these learning events, road and transport authorities, police, national road safety agencies, and other stakeholders were introduced to the Safe System Approach and provided with international best practice in saving lives on the road.

From June 4 to July 2, 2021, the police force from the three countries were trained in crash investigation, covering topics such as identifying and collecting evidence, developing scene diagrams, and estimating vehicle speed from skid marks, among many other aspects of crash investigation. Following the hands-on learning event, a set of Crash Investigation Guidelines adapted for each country were completed in September 2021 and shared with the training participants.

 All grant activities helped identify the key stakeholders involved in road safety in the three countries, and further on to shift their mindset towards the Safe System approach and build their capacity in crash investigation, thus enabling them to better collect, manage and use the crash data to implement road safety evidence-based measures. To further enhance the Government’s ability for road safety data management, a Data for Road Incident Visualization Evaluation and Reporting (DRIVER) pilot was also launched in Samoa. This pilot showcased how a simple tool can facilitate the easy recording, visualization, and analysis of road crashes, leading to informed decision making and investments to prevent future road crashes.

Given the good results from this engagement, the Asian Development Bank is planning a similar activity for other countries in Asia together with the GRSP, in support of the Asia-Pacific Road Safety Observatory. In addition, GRSP was contracted by the World Bank under the African Road Safety Observatory to deliver similar training for four countries in Africa.

• Road Safety Management Capacity Assessment for Samoa:
  
  Alina F. Burlacu, Eric Howard, Sophie Zachulski, Mirick Paala, Sean Michaels, Keelye Hanmer, and Blaise Murphet.
   
• Road Safety Management Capacity Assessment for the Solomon Islands:
  
  Naoki Kakuta, Dung Anh Hoang, Alina F. Burlacu, Sean Michaels, Eric Howard, Sam Johnson, Sophie Zachulski, Mirick Paala, and Blaise Murphet.
   
• Road Safety Management Capacity Assessment for Vanuatu:
  
  Dung Anh Hoang, Alina F. Burlacu, Sean Michaels, Eric Howard, Sam Johnson, Sophie Zachulski, and Mirick Paala.