Notification of Occurrences
What are the requirements for notifying occurrences?
The Rail Safety Act 2008 specifies that rail transport operators must report certain occurrences that happen on, or in relation to, the rail transport operator’s railway premises or railway operations.
What occurrences must be notified?
Those occurrences listed in clause 27 of the NSW Rail Safety (General) Regulation 2008 must be reported.
In addition, the ITSRR may, by notice in writing, require a rail transport operator to report any other occurrence or type of occurrence that endangers or could endanger the safe operation of any railway operations.How do I lodge a notification of an occurrence?
Rail transport operators must notify ITSRR in writing using the Notification of Occurrence form available for download from ITSRR’s website. Alternatively, occurrence notifications may be lodged electronically as data files for those operators that have made special arrangements for this.
The form provides instructions for completing and submitting a notification. ITSRR must receive written notification within 72 hours of the operator becoming aware of the occurrence taking place.
Rail transport operators also need to notify the Chief Investigator of the Office of Transport Safety Investigations (OTSI) by telephone as soon as practicable after becoming aware of specific occurrences. Further information is available on the Notification of Occurrence form and the OTSI website – www.otsi.nsw.gov.au.
What does ITSRR do with occurrence information?
ITSRR uses occurrence notification to assess long-term trends in rail safety data as well as monitoring the safety performance of railway operations. These activities inform our regulatory priority setting and regulatory responses with industry.
ITSRR reports on the safety performance of industry through an annual industry safety report.