Rail Incidents
Introduction
Accredited operators on the NSW rail network collect a variety of safety–related information to help them identify and manage safety risks associated with their operations.
Under section 64 of the NSW Rail Safety Act 2002, accredited operators are also required to notify the Independent Transport Safety and Reliability Regulator (ITSRR) of certain railway safety incidents (often referred to as “rail safety occurrences”).
This website presents summary data on key types of rail safety occurrences in NSW. The data are summarised according to a national occurrence classification scheme. The specific types of occurrences presented are based on those published nationally by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
NSW Rail Safety Occurrence Data
ITSRR analyses rail safety occurrence data to help understand safety risks and develop its regulatory strategy. Occurrence data are considered along with a variety of safety information such as findings from audit programs and accident investigations to guide ITSRR’s regulatory activity.
Another important use of rail safety occurrence data is public reporting. Data is provided here and ITSRR also produces the Annual Industry Safety Report which summarises rail safety occurrences for a large number of incident types over a longer period of time.
The Annual Industry Safety Report 2006–07 shows a long term decline in the number of incidents for major rail safety occurrence categories including passenger and public fatalities and derailments.
National Rail Occurrence Data
Historically NSW rail safety occurrences were classified into occurrence categories based on a NSW classification scheme. At the beginning of 2005 all Australian jurisdictions adopted a national rail safety occurrence classification scheme called ON–S1.
ON–S1 is aimed at promoting consistency in the classification of rail safety information and aiding the exchange of data between state, territory and federal rail safety regulators. It contains 19 principal occurrence categories. Some categories include incidents with an actual adverse outcome such as collision or derailment. Others represent “near hit” incidents — events which do not result in an adverse safety outcome but which could do so under slightly different circumstances, for example, a broken rail.
Important notes concerning the data