Lifetime Achievement Award

Background

The CARSP Lifetime Achievement Award for Road Safety is presented annually to individuals who have made a positive impact on road safety in Canada.  Candidates will have had a career in this field (past/present) and have also made significant contributions to the Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals.  The criteria are that the recipient be at or nearing retirement, has made a significant contribution to the field of road safety in Canada and to CARSP (minimum 15 years in the field), and that they have been a CARSP member at some point, but not necessarily at the time of the award nomination or presentation.  

2024 CARSP Conference Recipient

This year the winner of the award is Dr. Bhagwant Persaud.  The award was presented by the sponsor of the award, Accident Support Services International, represented by Amanda Giuliano.

Dr Bhagwant Persaud has been a key and valued member to CARSP for several decades. As a professor  of Civil Engineering at Toronto Metropolitan University, he has become well recognized, in Canada, the United States, and around the world, as an expert in the area of statistical methods in highway safety analysis and making substantial contributions to road safety engineering research. 

Bhagwant is an expert at Highway Design, Mathematical modelling of crash causes, Road safety statistical methods in highway safety analysis, Technology and Intelligent Systems, Traffic Engineering and Transportation Infrastructure. 

Throughout his career he has received a number of honors and awards and has many publications and patents.  At the Transportation Research Board annual meeting he received the prestigious D. Grant Mickle Award for best papers in 2001, 2003, and 2008.  He is an emeritus member (former co-chair) of the Transportation Research Board Committee on Safety Data, Analysis and Evaluation.   

Bhagwant has continuously contributed to the next generation of road safety professionals by ensuring that his students are working on road safety engineering research and are contributing members to CARSP conferences.  He has ensured that his students and their work have been presented at annual CARSP conferences over the decades. Many of his students have won the CARSP student award for best paper over the years.

For Bhagwant, the joy of discovery is amplified by the sense of purpose he feels in his work. “My work involves mathematically modelling crash causes based on real crash data,” he says.  “A lot of my work is directly linked to reducing the risk of crashes,” he says. “Road safety is effectively a version of public health, so it’s quite motivating.”