Transport accident and incident investigation in the European Union

Most serious, public transport accidents are investigated to a greater or lesser extent but, with some conspicuous exceptions, particularly with aviation, only a few are done with the aim of improving safety. Many have been investigated with the aim of apportioning blame or liability and although safety recommendations are often made, they frequently fail to identify some of the underlying causes of whatever went wrong. An accident is rarely the result of a single event. More often, it is caused by a combination of unrelated events coming together. In many modes, the human element in this causal chain can be significant. When an accident occurs, it is normally the result of one or more shortcomings in the safety system. People rarely make mistakes deliberately, but will often do things that have serious consequences

EU transport accident, incident and casualty databases: current status and future needs

Accident and casualty databases are an indispensable tool to allow for objective assessment of the transport safety problem, the identification of priority areas for action and for monitoring the effectiveness of countermeasures. Such databases at European Union level are needed to describe the current state of transport safety across the EU, to help define target levels of safety for each of the transport modes and to facilitate a data-led systems approach in defining strategies. The process of creating a range of common data sources necessary for the development and monitoring of the Common Transport Policy began in 1993. Progress has been achieved, especially for road transport, but for other modes basic kinds of data are lacking at EU-level. In order to allow meaningful analyses within each mode and comparison across the modes, further progress is needed. The purpose of this report is to review the progress made in the development of databases on accidents, casualties and exposure measures for each transport mode and, where gaps exist, to try to identify various options for EU action