Committee Members

Chair

Eric Hill

Eric is a Principal Engineer with SWECO in Edinburgh and has worked within Highways, traffic and road safety engineering in both private and public sectors since 1991.

Eric specialises in road safety engineering and road safety audit and frequently provides presentations and organises workshop days in Scotland for design engineers, road safety engineers, road safety auditors and the police.

Eric also has experience and knowledge of the enforcement and education aspects of road safety through his involvement with Police Scotland and the Institute of Advanced Motorists.

When not working he enjoys cycling, sailing and going on road trips in his Smart Roadster.

Vice-Chair

Richard Pearson

Richard is a Director at Drummond Black Consulting Ltd, BSc (Hons) CMILT MCIHT MSoRSA.

Richard is an Independent Road Safety Engineer working under Drummond Black Consulting Ltd. in Edinburgh and specialises on Road Safety projects as well as being involved in active travel and providing input to scheme design.

Richard began his career in 2001 with Atkins and has also since worked for TPi (Now part of Amey), Colin Buchanan (Now part of Jacobs), WYG up until August 2020.

During his career he has been involved in transport planning, traffic modelling, traffic management, road safety and project management.

Richard has a wide experience of all modes of transport having been an HGV driver, a motorcyclist, and now a keen cyclist.

Richard also sits on the Active Travel forum for City of Edinburgh Council and provided input to schemes aimed to improve walking and cycling.

In his free time Richard enjoys cycling, kayaking, fishing and golf.

Secretary  

Julian Bartlett

Julian is an independent road safety engineer (of over 25 years) and sheep farmer returning to the committee as Secretary.

Treasurer

Chris Gooch

Chris is a Senior Engineer (Road Safety Audit) at Transport for London. He has twenty years of experience in highways and traffic engineering, transport planning, Road Safety Audit and collision investigation work, in London, the wider UK and Middle East.

Chris is the Portfolio Delivery Engineering Lead (PDEL) for Assets, Assurance, RSA and Contracts portfolio at TfL, leading the delivery of a multi-disciplinary engineering service to provide Asset and Operational support and engineering technical assurance activities for Roads, Buses and Rivers in London. He is responsible for managing the delivery of RSA activities for TfL, including over 250 RSA per annum.

He is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institution of Logistics and Transport, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation, a Member of the Society of Road Safety Auditors, and holds a National Highways Certificate of Competency in Road Safety Audit (via SoRSA).

Since 2019, he has been a committee member of the CIHT Society of Road Safety Auditors, helping to promote safety audit best practice.

Membership Secretary

John Barrell

John has over 40 years’ experience in road safety having been involved in both the public sector and consultancy work. 

John started his career working for Salford City Council in 1974, before moving to Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council working on general engineering work.

After working with Tyne and Wear County Council and (following abolition of the Met Counties) South Tyneside, he joined Ross Silcock (now part of Jacobs) in 1989, and helped the firm develop its UK transportation safety research work, as well as being involved in overseas safety studies. In Nov 2011 he joined TRL as an International Road Safety Consultant and seemed to spend most of his time on airplanes (that changed with COVID!). Since leaving TRL in June 2016, he has been trying to wind down, but people keep offering me work.

John’s expertise in Road is wide ranging and has covered varied schemes in UK and overseas. Audits have ranged from motorway/trunk road schemes in both UK and China, to minor improvements. Most recently he has been working in Ukraine on a 4-year contract, but that is proving challenging with travel restrictions.

John has always been keen on developing younger professionals and sharing his knowledge and passion for his work. He was a visiting lecturer at Newcastle University on road safety topics, including CPR and RSA until 2018 and has contributed to several international road safety guidelines. Now starting to export these learning opportunities to overseas countries and developing guidelines with World Bank/GRSF and our own RSA on-line document!

John became a member of CIHT in 1995 and a member of the North Eastern Branch Committee since 2001. He was Branch Chairman in 2006/7. He joined SoRSA committee in 2006/7 as Treasurer, followed this as with chair 2017-19 and have remained on Committee as Immediate and Past chair until this year. Now he has taken up the role as membership Secretary.

Immediate past Chair 

Den Symons

Den retired from his position as Principal Engineer – Road Safety with National Highways in September 2022. Although retired, he has still been actively involved as an Independent Auditor.

Den continues undertaking Road Safety Audits on an Ad-Hoc basis. This ensures that he can maintain his qualifications for the foreseeable future.

He joined the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary in May 1977 and had 30 years of varied Police experience, retiring in May 2007. In February 1991, he was posted to the Exeter Traffic Department and specialised in dealing with major collisions.

In April 2001, Den was transferred within the Traffic Department to the role of Road Casualty Reduction Officer. The prime function for this role was to have a strategic overview of Traffic Management and Road Safety issues and to pursue an intelligence led partnership approach to casualty/collision reduction.

In June 2007, he joined the Road Safety Team of EM Highway Services Limited (formally AccordMP) in the role of Road Safety Engineer. His responsibilities included undertaking scheme studies, with a particular emphasis on safety schemes, and participating in Road Safety Audits at all stages. In April 2014, he was promoted to Principal Road Safety Engineer. The company were then taken over by Kier in 2015.

Den has been successful in attaining Fellow membership with the Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT), Fellow of the Society of Road Safety Auditors (SoRSA) and Fellow of the Institute of Highway Engineers (IHE). He is also on the IHE Registered Road Safety Auditor (RegRSA (IHE)). In November 2012, he was registered with the Engineering Council for Engineering Technician (EngTech) and also attained the HA (National Highways) Certificate of Competency for Road Safety Audits.

His work involved undertaking scheme studies, with a particular emphasis on safety schemes, and participating in numerous road safety audits. In respect of the latter, he has been fully approved by the National Highways (formally Highways England) as Team Leader under GG 119 (formally HD19/15) and had overall responsibility for managing the Road Safety Audits that were scheduled for the South West Region.

In July 2017, as part of the amalgamation of the Highways England Trunk Road Network for Area 1 & Area 2, he was part of the TUPE process and commenced my new role as Principal Engineer – Road Safety with National Highways.

Overall, Den now has over 30 years of highways, traffic, and road safety auditing experience, including involvement in over 1000 Road Safety Audits.

Past Chair

Stewart Knowles

Stewart is a Divisional Director at Jacobs, leading the Operational Road Safety discipline in England, responsible for the delivery of works within the business.

Stuart has extensive experience of providing Operational Road Safety advice to design teams and clients on the strategic road network within Managing Agent Contracts, Traditional Major Projects and Smart Motorway Schemes. 

He is a lead practitioner of the Highways England Project Safety Risk Management System, including Project Safety Reports and the Hazard Log risk assessment software. 

Stewart has written road safety policy and practice documents for the use of Passive Safety, Roadside Restraint and Road Safety Audits. He has experience in design and project management of strategic and local highway projects.

Roles have included management of multidisciplinary teams and road safety engineering services including accident investigation; collision and statistical analysis; local safety scheme identification and evaluation; road safety audit and non-motorised user evaluation. He is a firm believer in evidence-based design and ensuring monitoring of project outcomes is completed. 

Stewart is a Fellow of CIHT and has been a committee member since 2011. 

Events Officer 

Libby Sands

Libby began her Road Safety Investigation/Road Safety Auditing life in 1989 when she joined Hertfordshire County Council, working with Dick Rainbird, who many consider to be the ’Grandfather’ of Road Safety Auditing.

In 1994 shortly after the publication of HD 19/03 during a tour of the UK with a training course on the new Standard, Libby was heard to complain about some of the ‘Auditors’ who were carrying out audits and how they seemed to be doing design checks instead. John Smart (sadly now deceased) from what was then IHT, said ‘Why not set up a Branch of IHT purely for Road Safety Auditors?’. That was the conception of SoRSA.

Libby calculates she has completed over 4,500 audits during the 34 years, ranging from a simple single new traffic signs through highways maintenance schemes to multi-million-pound bypass’s and improvement schemes and everything in-between. She retired from full time employment in 2016, and now works as an Independent Auditors for a number of Civil Engineering Consultants and Housing Developers.

Web Officer

Dr Jwan Kamla

Jwan is a senior engineer at Operational Safety in Jacobs. She is a Chartered Engineer with 19 years of experience in the area of highway, traffic and road safety engineering. She is with PhD, MSC and BSC in civil engineering.

Jwan is currently Web Officer for SoRSA, in addition she has multiple volunteering roles within CIHT this includes CIHT East Midlands Vice Chair, mentor, reviewer and she is a member of Engineering Professional Review Panel for CIHT.

Jwan joined Jacobs from Atkins at Atkins she was technical specialist lead in the area of “Data, Modelling and Collision Analysis”. As part of her role, she has delivered detail collision analysis for many Schemes, created a guidance that is used within the practice by all road safety specialists. She also delivered road safety feasibility studies for National Highways, technical collision reports for many Schemes, along with a number of safety risk assessments including East of England tasks. She has also involved in writing safety plans for major project Schemes.

Prior to Atkins Jwan was working for AECOM Strategic consulting team. At AECOM she has worked on various major projects for National Highways. Jwan as analysis lead was responsible for analyzing STATS19 data and preparing road safety reports pertaining to the Strategic Road Network (SRN). She also worked on Suicide Prevention Strategy, Economic Assessment of A38 Derby Junctions (Accident cost-benefit analysis) and A500 Etruria Widening.

Jwan is an active road safety auditor, undertaking Road safety audits across National Highways and Local Authority Road Networks. As part of her role at Jacobs she is responsible for updating National Highways Road Safety Audit Database and reviewing the audits on the networks. Her expertise lies in various aspects of highway engineering, road safety engineering, operational safety, transportation planning, traffic forecasting, speed management and economic assessment of the schemes. In addition, Jwan is competent in using multiple software including GIS tools, database queries, MS Excel, MS Access, AVIS, SPSS, Power BI, Limdep, SATWIN, program coding for COBALT and TUBA along with techniques to deliver the projects successfully.

Jwan in her PhD worked on “Analysing truck position data to study roundabout accident risk in the UK she has over 10 publications in the area of road safety. As part of her research Jwan had presented in a number of conferences including Transportation Research Board in Washington DC, Safer Road Conference, SoRSa Conference, Cheltenham, UK, University of Nottingham and CIHT EM annual conference.

Jwan prior to her PhD has worked as a highway Engineer and as a lecturer at the university. Where she has supervised students and delivered lectures related to highway, traffic and statistical engineering.

Newsletter Editor

Haydn Vernals 

Haydn is a Director at Sevenairs Consulting Ltd and has worked in Traffic and Road Safety Engineering since 1992, in both private and public sector environments.

Haydn is director of a specialist consultancy based in Sheffield.  Working across the UK providing Road Safety Audit, Collision Investigation, Safety Risk Assessments, for local government, government agencies and private sector clients of all sizes.  Is a fellow of both the CIHT and IHE, a chartered transportation professional with CILT and also a member of SoRSA.

Over his career, project involvement has been has diverse, with a particular specialism in traffic and road safety engineering techniques, road safety audit, preliminary geometry design and traffic signs design.  Project involvement has ranged from minor road markings schemes and access points for housing developments, through larger local schemes, trunk roads, smart motorways and rail projects.

When not working, Haydn enjoys walking and photography, especially when he gets chance to mix that with a road trip visit the far North West Highlands, has been known to frequent the gym, run and cycle, and eases the aches with a passion for music and cocktail mixology.  As well as being on the SoRSA Committee, Haydn is a CPD Reviewer for the CIHT.

Ireland Representative

Stuart Summerfield

Stuart has over 35 years’ experience in highway design and road safety having been involved in both the public sector and consultancy work.

I started my engineering career working for Daventry District Council, Northants in 1991, after a couple of wayward years in architecture.  In 1997 I joined Westbury Homes undertaking development engineering and Section 278 works.

In 2001 I relocated to the wonderful but wet West of Ireland and have been based here since.  Initially I worked for a multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy with my main roles split between Urban Improvement Schemes and Road Safety Audits. 

In 2006 I became a founding Partner of CST Group Consulting Engineers.  We have been fortunate to be able to continue to offer a wide-ranging consultancy with the core services Civil – Structural – Traffic forming the company name.

Not only I have undertaken audits in every corner of the country, and been privilege to see some stunning emerald countryside en route, but I also continue to operate in the UK and further afield.

I became a member of CIHT and SoRSA in 2009 and have been honoured with the role of Committee Member and Representative for the island of Ireland since 2012.

As of 2020 I will be presenting the Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) Road Safety Audit training for potential audit team leaders.

Scotland Representative  

Richard Hernan

Richard started his career in 2007 and joined his current employer Atkins in 2020, BEng MSc CEng FCIHT MSoRSA.

After beginning his career in 2007 with Atkins, Richard gained public sector experience with Renfrewshire, City of Edinburgh and East Dunbartonshire Councils. Prior to re-joining Atkins Richard spent seven years with AECOM. Richard’s career has straddled both Transport Planning and Traffic Engineering disciplines, although recently his work has focused on Road Safety and Active Travel.

In 2016 Richard gained his Certificate of Competency and completed an MSc in Transport Planning and Engineering. He became a Chartered Engineer in 2019.

Since completing the RoSPA ten days training in 2014 Richard has undertaken over 400 Audits, for a number of clients including City of Edinburgh Council, Glasgow City Council, Transport Scotland and Transport Infrastructure Ireland. Richard has a leading role in managing and growing Atkins Road Safety business in Scotland.

Richard is a motorsport fan and regularly attends events both nationally and internationally, to date he has attended ten Formula One grand prix, he also enjoys getting on the track himself. Away from the track, Richard is a keen traveller, enjoys listening to Audiobooks and attending sports events.

Wales Representative 

Tristan Brooks

Tristan is an independent road safety auditor with over 20 year’s experience and Director at Go-surveys Ltd.

Tristan is an independent Road Safety Auditor with over 20 year’s experience in Road Safety, Collision Investigation, Transport Planning and Traffic Surveys.

Before founding go-surveys 10 years ago he worked for a number of multi-disciplinary transport consultancies and has been involved in major schemes in the UK, EU and Middle east.

Tristan has undertaken over 500 RSA’s in the last 5 years on a variety of schemes including large scale highways schemes, active travel routes, TTM, equestrian crossings and level crossings for major consultancies, Local Authorities and developers.

He holds a HE approved Road Safety Audit Certificate of Competency and is on the Street works Qualifications Register.

Tristan got into Road Safety Auditing to improve the standard/safety of highways schemes after driving, cycling or walking through schemes asking himself ‘why have they designed it like this?’ and thought he could make a difference, and is hoping to share this philosophy with SoRSA.

Outside of work Tristan likes all sports, although as he gets older his participation is giving way to watching, although he can boast over 20 Welsh Rugby Caps for Wales, and has represented Wales in European and World Cups, albeit in the less glamorous touch rugby form of the game, rather than full contact!

North of England Representative

Chris van Lottum

Chris has over 25 years' experience and works as a Director at Foster Percival Limited.

Chris has over 25 years’ experience working on a wide diversity of, transport planning and traffic engineering projects including road safety audit and road safety engineering; operational health and safety; development planning and travel plans; and environmental statements.

Chris has undertaken more than 900 audits on highway schemes in the UK, Europe, Middle East, South-east Asia and the Caribbean and holds a Road Safety Audit Certificate of Competency. He has worked on collision investigation schemes, risk assessment and road safety research. He has wide experience in injury crash data analysis and the design of road safety remedial measures on the local and strategic road network. His experience in road safety research includes driver’s choice of speed, unlicensed driving, quiet lanes and rural speed management.

Chris is familiar with all aspects of development planning from scoping studies and transport assessment reports to the design of junctions, highway improvements and parking areas. He has produced travel plans for existing and new developments.

He has previously served as a member of the CIHT North Eastern Branch Committee, and was co-opted to both Membership Services Board and Transportation Professional Panel. He is currently co-opted to the Learned Society & Technical Strategy Board.

Committee Member

Alastair Pike

Alastair is the Head of Road Safety at Vectos, with more than 15 years’ experience in the highway and road safety engineering sector. 

Alastair is the Head of Road Safety at transport planning consultancy Vectos, where he is responsible for the management of Road Safety across the country. He has 15 years’ experience in the fields of highway engineering design and road safety engineering within both the private and public sectors. He has a passion for road safety and seeks to provide real, tangible benefits to road users while creating spaces that are not only safe in operation, but also desirable for users.

He is also responsible for project management and advising clients in regard to highways, traffic, transportation and road safety matters relating to various land use development proposals, highway schemes and safety studies. He is passionate about mentoring junior staff, in particular assisting them in obtaining qualifications and professional memberships.

Alastair regularly presents to industry peers on the topic of Road Safety, and most recently spoke on “Road Safety: Past, Present & Future" at the RJS Road Safety Conference in Wales.

Alastair likes to spend any spare time at the beach with his family and tries to get in the water to surf whenever possible. Which isn’t so often these days!

Committee Member

Miguel-Angel Serrano Santos

Eur Ing Miguel-Angel Serrano Santos is a well-renowned Chartered Civil Engineer, who graduated from the University of Granada in Spain.

At present, he has returned to Doha as Technical Director of Corner Contracting and Services and he is as well, Senior Road Safety Specialist on behalf of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS).

Before that, he worked as Road Safety Expert for the National Road Safety Center (NRSC) in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), and with Ashghal (Public Works Authority), where he was responsible for managing and approving all Road Safety Audits, that were undertaken in Qatar.

He is Chartered Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (CEng MICE), Chartered Manager of the Chartered Management Institute (CMgr MCMI) and a Fellow Member of the Chartered Institution of Traffic and Transportation (FCIHT), Fellow Member of the Society of Road Safety Auditors (FSoRSA) and Fellow Member of the Spanish Association of Road Safety Auditors (FASEVI). He has over twenty years’ experience in transport planning and traffic engineering. Due to his extensive knowledge in the civil engineering discipline, he has successfully secured and delivered Road Safety projects internationally.

Miguel is also the Vice-President of ASEVI (Spanish Association of Road Safety Auditors), and Member of the SoRSA Committee and he has successfully helped to create a corroborative relationship between engineering professionals in different countries.

Lastly, Miguel has successfully delivered Traffic Management and Road Safety courses to students and engineering professionals, and has been an active speaker at various conferences, seminars and universities internationally. His courses have been endorsed by IRF, Qatar University, ASEVI and SoRSA.

Committee Member 

Ian Medd

Ian spent 37 years at Hampshire County Council pursuing a career in road safety education and engineering.

For the last 19 years Ian was responsible for developing and managing the Road Safety Audit service. He was also chair of The Hampshire Safer Roads partnership steering group. Ian has undertaken over 2000 safety audits of all types. 

Following early retirement in 2011 Ian has continued to work with road safety consultancies on audits and safety engineering projects. He is a visiting lecturer on Southampton Universities Transportation MsC course and is also a member of the CIHT Road Safety Panel. He currently represents CIHT on the DfT steering group on HGV speeds.

Ian is a lifelong motorcyclist, who enjoys touring especially on the Continent. He also helps with the family equestrian interests.

Committee Member

Mannia Georgiadou

Mannia is an Senior Engineer with 10 years’ experience working in the Transportation and Road Safety Engineering sector.

During this time, she has worked in strategic road safety and highways related fields including maintenance and design, road safety engineering, operational safety, and road safety audit. Currently she is the Operational Safety Team manager for Sweco in Scotland.

Mannia is a trained Road Safety Engineer who has delivered accident investigation and prevention studies, feasibility studies, risk assessments and detailed design on behalf of clients in local and central government across the UK and Ireland.

As a Road Safety auditor trained to the requirements of GG119, Mannia has undertaken Road Safety Audits in schemes including road improvements, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure improvements and streetscape projects.

In her free time, Mannia enjoys listening to murder mystery podcasts and going to the cinema. She is also a keen Japanese Taiko drummer.

Committee Member

Matt Smith

Matt is a Traffic Management and Road Safety Engineer working for North Yorkshire Council.

An engineer with over 30 years’ experience gained within the Local Authority and the private sector. Matt has varied experience in highways and transportation related fields including highway maintenance, highway design and construction, site supervision, scheme identification and evaluation, specialising in road safety engineering for the past 24 years.

Matt has carried out numerous road safety audits at all stages and on most types of road from unclassified to motorways and was one of the first 100 auditors to obtain the HA Certificate of Competency.

Having become a member of the CIHT in 2010, Matt was elected as a member of SoRSA in 2013 and took on the role of representative for the Yorkshire and the Humber Branch in 2016.

In his spare time, Matt enjoys motorcycling, often leaving the Dales and Moors of North Yorkshire behind to meet up with old friends living in various parts of the country to ride around Wales and Ireland. He spends his summer holidays taking his track bike around MotoGP circuits such as Le Mans in France and Jerez in Spain.

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