Safety Data Acquisition and Analysis
Safety Data Acquisition and Analysis (SDAA) is the process of collecting data on
hazards, accidents, or incidents. The data is used to make operations safer by reducing the
probability of future accidents and incidents, and to avoid the risk and financial liability
of claims. Safety data is also used to extract trends related to individual accidents,
incidents, or hazards and to compare data from multiple accidents, incidents or hazards.
Safety Plan Contents
A safety plan contains specific elements. Even though some of this information may be
contained in other documents, such as employee hiring policies, or with the system’s
drug and alcohol policy. Copies of this information should also appear in the safety plan.
Please describe what you do to address each of the items listed below. If an item is not
applicable to the system, please indicate why.
Accident/Incident:
 Sample of agency’s accident report form
 Sample of agency’s incident report form
 Describe agency’s procedures for reporting accidents/incidents
 Describe agency’s procedures for evaluating accidents/incidents
Hazard Identification:
 Sample of agency’s forms for evaluating hazards
 Describe agency’s procedure for evaluating hazards
Positions To Be Included
Every employee in a transit agency is responsible for safe operations. Some have a role
in the Safety Data Acquisition and Analysis process. Some key personnel involved in the
Safety Data Acquisition and Analysis (including hazard identification and resolution)
process include:
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Transit Director
Operation Supervisor
Accident/Incident Review Committee
Police
EMS/Hospital Insurance Claims
Accident/Incident
Accidents/incidents are the events that generate safety data. They include:
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Collision (with vehicle, fixed object, or pedestrian),
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Off-the-road operation,
Incident at stop or station,
Fire onboard vehicle,
Non-collision injury, and
Medical emergency.
When a transit bus is involved in any of these events, the operator should immediately
contact the dispatcher or other designated person so that immediate calls can be made to
the police and Emergency Management Service (EMS) for assistance.
Accident/Incident Investigation
When a transit bus accident or incident occurs, an investigation by the transit agency
follows immediately. The goal of data collection during an accident/incident
investigation is to gather data useful to the review and analysis of the accident/incident at
a later date. Primary data collected at the accident/incident scene includes subsequent
reports from sources, such as:
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Police,
EMS/hospital
Witnesses,
Drug and alcohol screen results, and
Insurance (S)
Secondary data is available whether or not an accident/incident occurred. Examples of
secondary data are:
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Dispatch logs and/or records,
Onboard recorder data
Involved vehicle maintenance records,
Involved operator/employee training, accident/incident, and substance abuse
records.
Accident/Incident Analysis
A review and analysis of an accident/incident (event) is conducted by the Review
Committee (may be a single person) assigned by management to this task. Using the
collected primary and assembled secondary data, the Review Committee analyzes the
data (may interview involved employees or witnesses) and makes a determination of
preventability using an established standard (one used by transit or an internally
developed written standard).
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Accident/Incident Findings and Recommendations
After determination of preventability and causal factors is completed, the Review
Committee may meet with the involved employees to discuss their:
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Determination of preventability,
Findings of causal factors, and
Recommendations for corrective actions.
The findings are used by management to determine the most appropriate corrective action
to implement.
Safety Database
Selected primary data is entered into a manual vehicle register form or coded and entered
into a computer database to form the Safety Database of past accidents/incidents for the
transit system. The data entered is at the discretion of the transit system. Transit systems
that are required to file reports to the National Transportation Database (NTD) usually
have established codes for their database to efficiently produce these reports.
Safety Data Analysis
Using a safety database, a transit system can efficiently conduct analysis of
accidents/incidents, such as:
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Trend analysis to identify trends in various accident/incident types, or
Frequency analysis to identify the most frequent accident/incident type or
locations with the most frequent accidents/incidents, or
Accident/incident rate analysis to examine the number of accidents per million
vehicle-miles or the number of passengers slips and falls per million passengers
for their fleet.
These results of these analysis are useful in identifying hazards.
Hazard Identification
A hazard is a condition that makes an accident/incident more likely to occur. There are
hazards that increase the likelihood of a transit bus accident; and there are hazards in the
workplace for office, maintenance, and yard personnel. A hazard can be identified by
observation by any transit employee, by the result of accident/incident analysis, or by a
safety database analysis.
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Hazards Investigation and Analysis
Hazards are identified by three methods:
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Employee observation, or
The finding of the causal factors of a single accident/incident, or
The analysis of the safety database that identifies disturbing trends or significant
changes in the frequency of occurrence of an accident/incident.
Hazard Corrective Actions
The hazard analysis provides transit management with information to make decisions on
how best to deal with a hazard. The decisions can range from eliminating the hazard by
parking a vehicle that has a design defect, to changing a route to avoid crossing a
dangerous intersection. Procedure changes and remedial training are examples of
corrective actions that reduce the reoccurrence of the hazard.
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