Safe System Approach Student Competition
ITE students are invited to create a short video showing how the Safe System Approach can help prevent deaths and serious injuries in their communities.
At a Glance
Who can participate?
ITE student members
What should you create?
An original two- to five-minute video
Interest form due
September 30, 2026
Videos due
November 30, 2026
Winners announced
January 11, 2027
The deadline to Submit Your Interest: September 30, 2026, at 11:59 PM ET.
Submit your interest here:
What Should Students Create?
Students should create a video that examines a local transportation safety problem or case study and explains how the Safe System Approach could address it.
Strong entries should:
- Look upstream at the conditions creating or perpetuating risk of serious injury or death.
- Assess kinetic-energy risk through exposure, severity, and likelihood.
- Prioritize holistic, system-level changes that reduce risk at its source.
- Identify conditions that would remain out of alignment with a Safe System, such as operating speeds above survivable levels.
- Present the students’ own analysis and perspective.
Videos must be two to five minutes long and recorded in landscape orientation. Professional editing is not required.
Who Can Participate?
The competition is open to ITE student members. Teams should designate a primary contact to coordinate with ITE.
How Does Participation Work?
- Submit the interest form by September 30, 2026 at 11:59 PM ET.
- ITE will send the chapter contact confirmation, resources, the judging rubric, and video-submission instructions.
- Submit the completed video by November 30, 2026 at 11:59 PM ET.
- Entries will be judged by December 30, 2026.
- Winners will be announced on January 11, 2027 at the TRB Student Reception.
How Will Entries Be Evaluated?
| Category | Points |
|---|---|
| Safe System Alignment | 40 |
| Critical Thinking and Student Perspective | 25 |
| Creativity and Engagement | 15 |
| Content Clarity and Accuracy | 10 |
| Production Quality | 10 |
| Total | 100 |
Safe System Alignment will consider whether the video looks upstream, assesses exposure, severity, and likelihood, prioritizes system-level change, and identifies next steps for conditions that remain out of alignment with a Safe System.
Judging Rubric Coming Soon
Recognition
Winning entries will be announced and recognized at ITE’s Student Reception during the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting on January 11, 2027.
About the Safe System Approach
ITE is committed to advancing the Safe System Approach, a comprehensive, proactive framework for eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries. The approach recognizes that people make mistakes and are vulnerable and seeks to prevent those mistakes from resulting in death or serious injury. Progress around the world demonstrates that change is possible. Ten countries reduced road deaths by 50% in the decade to 2021 and more than half of all countries reported falling fatalities in that period, according to the World Health Organization. Although US traffic deaths have declined from their recent peak, there were an estimated 36,640 traffic fatalities in 2025. The Safe System Approach focuses on the transfer of kinetic energy as the primary cause of injury and proactively manages three risk factors in the transportation system:
Source: IIHS
Examples of ITE’s wide range of products to support implementation of the Safe System Approach include:
Safe System Success Stories, developed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in collaboration with ITE and other partners. These case studies show how agencies are proactively managing exposure, severity, and likelihood through coordinated, system-level strategies.
The ITE Safety Roadmap and Action Plan, which establishes organization-wide actions to make safety central.
The Beyond Duty of Care initiative, which advances a people-centered, safety-first professional culture and considers how these responsibilities can be embedded in ITE.
Development of the upcoming Implementing the Safe System Approach for Public Agencies recommended practice.
Implementing the Safe System Approach Course, a certificate-based blended learning course that provides an in-depth understanding of the Safe System Approach and its application.
Publications developed by ITE to support the USDOT, such as the Safe System Approach for Speed Management and Safe System Approach for the Urban Core informational reports.
Safe System Approach for Speed Management Safe System Approach for the Urban Core
ITE’s Safe System webpage and Speed Management for Safety resource hub.
Students throughout ITE’s international community can play an important role in advancing this work and shaping the future of transportation safety. Led by the ITE Safety Council, this video competition gives ITE student chapters an opportunity to deepen their understanding of the Safe System Approach, connect with transportation safety professionals, and increase awareness of Safe System solutions that can prevent deaths and serious injuries in their communities.