Introduction
The Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA Act) provides members of the public with a right of access to government information. The GIPA Act replaced the Freedom of Information Act 1989.
This page provides a general description of:
- our agency’s structure and functions
- how our functions affect members of the public
- the kinds of information we hold
- information we make publicly available.
Function and structure
OTSI is an independent statutory body as prescribed in the NSW Transport Administration Act 1988. Its activities are also governed by the NSW Passenger Transport Act 1990.
The primary purpose of OTSI is to improve the safety of the NSW transport network through investigation of safety issues and actions, as well as sharing lessons learnt with the transport sector. Our priorities are outlined in the OTSI Strategic Plan 2022-2025 (PDF).
OTSI investigates safety incidents and accidents involving bus, ferry, and rail (passenger and freight) operations in NSW to understand why events occurred and to make recommendations to prevent them from happening again. Our 'no-blame' approach does not apportion blame or liability but seeks to find the causes of events and share lessons to improve safety.
OTSI has a collaboration agreement with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) and undertakes rail safety investigations on behalf of the ATSB under the Commonwealth Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003.
A Quality Advisory Forum provides independent review of investigation reports and subject matter experts (SMEs) assist with investigations.
The OTSI structure comprises four teams:
- Business Services
- Investigations (Heavy Rail and Metro, and Ferry, Bus and Light Rail)
- Safety Promotion
- Systemic Review and Insights.
The OTSI Information Officer in Business Services is responsible for acknowledging and managing formal access applications.
Types of information we hold
OTSI keeps records associated with its core function of transport safety investigations, funding allocation, policy and planning and other non-service delivery functions, such as human resources, managing suppliers of goods and services and other transactional activities.
We comply with the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW) (PPIP Act) and the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW) (HRIP Act) when dealing with the personal and health information of its customers, employees and contractors.
OTSI conforms to legal obligations under the State Records Act 1998 (NSW) which regulates how OTSI manages and disposes of records of information.
Information made publicly available
Transport safety investigation reports are made publicly available on this OTSI website.
Open access information
Open access information is a category of information explained further below under ‘information we must disclose’.
- Agency Information Guide (this page)
- OTSI Annual Report.
More information
Find out more about GIPA on the Your right to information page.