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Safe Driving - Essential Knowledge as a Road User
The road system is made up of four basic groups:
Road users: drivers, passengers, motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians.
Vehicles: eg. cars, trucks, buses, motorcyclists and bicycles.
The physical environment: roads, median strips, traffic signals and the footpath.
The social environment: eg. social pressures connected with speeding and the use alcohol and drugs.
To minimise the risk of accidents and injuries to road users, the following three measures have been undertaken:
Primary Measures or ways to avoid crashes:
These include street lighting, road design, driver/rider licencing, law making and enforcement, vehicle visibility, braking, steering, lighting and signalling systems and public education.
Secondary Measures or ways to keep injury to a minimum:
These include breakaway lightpoles, guard rails, energy absorbing steering wheel columns, safety glass in windows, metal reinforcement to passenger cabins, occupant restraints like seat belts and helmets for motorbike riders and cyclists.
Tertiary Measures or ways to allow for the best possible recovery:
These include the services of the police and ambulance officers, hospital and other medical care, legal aid insurance and/or social welfare payments to road crash victims.
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