The 91^st   Council meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 6^th April 2010 approved the REAAA Strategy Map and Initiatives for 2010 to 2012. As an immediate action to promote REAAA and to draw new members to REAAA, the President mooted the idea of an inaugural REAAA Essay Contest.

The selected theme of the Essay Contest, “ROAD SAFETY – MAKE IT HAPPEN” is in line with the theme of the 9^th HORA Meeting on 5^th April 2010, in Kuala Lumpur, which focused on Road Safety. Invitations were then sent to all REAAA members, with a deadline of 15^th  October 2010.

The contest required contestants to meet the condition of entry as the followings:

1. a) Authors must be either an Ordinary/Associate member of REAAA or an employee of an Institutional member of REAAA at the time of the submission of the paper;

b) All essays are to be in English; between 1000 to 1500 words, and are only based on the Essay Theme of “Road Safety – Make it Happen;

1. c) The essay can discuss all areas and issues related to road safety. In particular, submissions can discuss innovative and effective ways and ideas to implement and improve road safety measures;
2. d) Only one (1) essay may be submitted by each contestant. Each essay must reflect the contestant’s own research, writing and original thinking. The essay must not have been published elsewhere in any similar format. At the deadline, 12 submissions were received, two each from Australia, Japan and Malaysia while Indonesia had six entries.

The Judging Panel comprised of the following:-

Prof.Dr. Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah (Malaysia) as The Chairman with members:-Ir. Danis H Sumadilaga (Indonesia); Awang Haji Amer Hishamuddin PDH  Hj. Zakaria (Brunei); Dato’ Ir. Han Joke Kwang (Malaysia) and Mr Kieran Sharp (Australia) as the Arbitrator.

The judging was based on the following criteria:-

1. Originality of ideas and contents,
2. Creativity and innovativeness,
3. Technical merit,
4. Impact and relevance to region and country.

The Judging Panel evaluated all the entries based on the above criteria and met in Kuala Lumpur on 28^th October 2010 to finalise the selection. The Judging Panel has selected the three winners, together with five merit winners and the remaining four as acknowledgment of participation.

The first prize is RM1,000.00 and a certificate. Second prize is RM750.00 and a certificate, third prize is RM500.00 and a certificate. The REAAA President, Dato Sri Prof. Ir. Dr Judin presented awards to the 3 winners at the Welcome Dinner in conjunction of the 91st REAAA Governing Council Meeting in Singapore.

The winners as the following entries;

The 1^st Prize went to Japan’s Masato Matsumoto, Takeshi Matsushita and Kana Watanabe From West Nippon Expressway Co Ltd for their essay entitled “Road Safety with ‘DRIVE & LOVE’ Mind”.

The 2^nd Prize went to the essay entitled “Empowerment and Public Participation: A new paradigm toward safer road in Indonesia” by Dr. Ir. Didik Rudjito from Ministry of Public Works, Directorate General of Highways, Indonesia.

The 3^rd Prize, the essay entitled “New Approach on Identifying Accident Blackspot Location in the National Road Network” by Agus Bari Saylendra, Pantja Dharma Oetojo and Muhammad Idris from Ministry of Public Works, Institute of Road Engineering, Agency for Research Directorate General of Highways, Indonesia.

Each of the following five essays were presented a certificate under the merit winners category:

1. Japan’s Hiroshi Makino from University of Tokyo, Japan with the essay entitled Time has just come that essentially reduction of traffic accidents can be done by Cooperative Vehicle Highway System
2. Australia’s Ganesh Vengadasalam of ARRB Group, Australia for the essay entitled Developing a New Approach to Prevent Railway Bridge Strikes in the UK
3. Australia’s John Esnouf from Vicroads, Australia for the essay entitled Road Safety-Make it Happen-Stamp out Attitude!
4. Indonesia’s Ir. Nurmala Simanjuntak from Ministry of Public Works, Institute of Road Engineering, and Agency for Research Directorate General of Highways, Indonesia for the essay entitled Reducing Crashes By Reducing Surprises
5. Malaysia’s Hamzah Hashim, Ir. Mohd Hizam Harun and Hanani Mohd Radzi from Road Facilities Maintenance Branch, Head Quarters of Public Works Department, Malaysia for the essay entitled Managing Road Safety From Road Maintenance Perspective.