6. LEVEL OF NOTIFIABLE OCCURRENCES
Rail Safety
Railway safety incidents are recorded and notified to the Office of Rail Safety. These incidents are termed ‘notifiable occurrences’ and are defined in the Rail Safety Regulations 1999 as Category ‘A’ (serious injury, death, or significant damage) or Category ‘B’ (incidents that may have the potential to cause a serious accident) and Australian Standard “Railway Safety Management” 4292 - 2006. Notifiable occurrence reporting is a legislated requirement under the Rail Safety Act for the accredited owner and operator of a rail system and therefore form part of the PTA’s safety management system. These do not cover bus operations.
The performance measure for Category ‘A’ and ‘B’ occurrences is expressed as the number of occurrences per million passenger boardings and per million train kilometres. A low rate of incidents indicates that sound safety procedures and controls exist and are operating effectively throughout the rail system.
The benchmark values for Category ‘A’ and Category ‘B’ incidents are calculated on the projected estimations of the number of future passenger boardings and train kilometres.
There were 16 Category ‘A’ notifiable incidents for the year 2006/07 compared to 18 in the previous year.
Category ‘A’ incidents per million passenger boardings were down compared with 2005/06.
There were 627 Category ‘B’ notifiable incidents for the year 2006/07 compared to 587 in the previous year.
The Category ‘B’ incidents per passenger boardings and train kilometre were lower for 2006/07 compared to 2005/06.
The 2006/07 results for both Category ‘A’ and ‘B’ were higher than the benchmark. This was partly due to the amount of work being carried out on the rail system during the year and an increase in level crossing incidents.
PTA has undertaken a number of initiatives as outlined below to combat level crossing incidents:
- Red light cameras: The PTA is working with the WA Police to install red light cameras on selected level crossings. The police will manage the infringement and issuing of fines process as part of their existing infringement system;
- Level crossing audits: In conjunction with Main Roads Western Australia, the PTA will continue to undertake an audit of all level crossings to identify deficiencies in signs and road markings; and
- National level crossing behaviour review: The PTA is working with the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) on a review of various education campaigns to evaluate their effectiveness.
Regional School Bus Services Safety
Accidents attributable to all causes are notified to the School Bus Team Leader Vehicle Inspector in the PTA. The performance measure is expressed as the number of notifiable occurrences (accidents) reported during the school year. A low number of occurrences incidents indicates that sound safety procedures and controls exist and are being adhered to throughout the regional school bus fleet.
There were 13 ‘on-road’ recorded school bus accidents comprising of 10 minor and 3 major accidents during the year.
Approximately 69% of the accidents occurred through no fault of the school bus driver.