Rail operators are being reminded of the need to report Category A rail occurrences to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) following a number of incidents that have not been reported as required.
Recent reforms to national rail safety legislation have resulted in changes to the way rail occurrences need to be reported in some states and territories. By law, rail transport operators in South Australia, Northern Territory, Tasmania and New South Wales must now verbally report Category A incidents to the ATSB.
A review of reports received by the ATSB, and the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator (ONRSR) has shown inconsistencies in reporting patterns. In particular:
- some Category A notifiable occurrences are being reported in written form to the ONRSR only with no verbal report to the ATSB
- some Category A notifiable occurrences have been incorrectly classified by operators as Category B and only reported to the ONRSR.
The ATSB and ONRSR remind all operators in these states and the Northern Territory of their responsibilities under the law and that failing to report category A occurrences to the ATSB may incur a penalty.
All Rail Safety National Law (RNSL) occurrences resulting in serious injury are classified
Category A
and only those accidents that result in hospital admission should be reported.
The ONRSR also reminds operators that under the rail national safety law, a running line derailment is a Category A occurrence. (A number of such occurrences have not been reported to the ATSB.)
All Rail Safety National Law (RNSL) occurrences resulting in serious injury are classified Category A and only those accidents that result in hospital admission should be reported (against this category).
The ATSB and ONRSR have released a fact sheet to help operators better understand their reporting responsibilities.
- Fact sheet: Reporting Cat A rail occurrences to the ATSB