Only a snapshot in time: the importance of educating the legal profession on skid resistance issues

At the International Friction Conference of May 2005 in New Zealand, the author presented a paper on the expectations placed upon road authorities with respect to the management of skid resistance by those pursuing third party claims against the authority (ie. the Claimant/Plaintiff and their legal representatives). The paper concluded that it was in the best interests of highway practitioners to make the effort to educate the legal representatives of both 'sides' and ultimately those in the courtroom (should proceedings not settle early and run their course) of the often complex issues surrounding a skid resistance related loss of control incident. The author has seen and experienced nothing in the three years since delivering his previous paper in New Zealand, that has convinced him that the legal profession in general has raised its level of understanding of skid resistance issues (indeed it could be case that 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing'), or that skid resistance related cases are decreasing rapidly in number. Therefore, he believes that there remains value in re-stating and reinforcing (including through recent case study) within this updated paper a number of the messages presented in May 2005.

• Authors:
  • Hillier, P
• Conference:
  • International Safer Roads Conference, 2nd, 2008, Cheltenham, United Kingdom
• Publication Date: 2008-5

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 7p
• Monograph Title: International Safer Roads Conference: managing roads and runway surfaces to improve safety, Cheltenham, United Kingdom, 11-14 May 2008

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Case studies; Crash investigation; Legislation; Skid resistance; Surface course (Pavements); Traffic crashes
• Uncontrolled Terms: Road design and management
• ATRI Terms: Case study; Crash investigation; Legislation; Road surface properties; Skidding resistance; Traffic crash
• Subject Areas: Highways; Law; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01385496
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• Files: ATRI
• Created Date: Aug 22 2012 6:57PM