Bus, ferry and rail operators in NSW must report a range of safety events ('occurrences') to certain authorities. OTSI investigates some of these events and uses the data in various activities to help drive safety improvements.
What is a notifiable occurrence?
Transport operators are required to report certain incidents and accidents to the regulators and other authorities. These are usually referred to as ‘notifiable occurrences’.
The definition of notifiable occurrence varies across bus, ferry and rail, and is defined in:
- Clause 88 of the Passenger Transport (General) Regulation 2017
- Regulation 57 of the Rail Safety National Law National Regulations 2012 (NSW)
- Section 88 and 89 of the Marine Safety (Domestic Commercial Vessel) National Law Act 2012
Generally, more than 1,000 safety events are reported to OTSI each year. Bus reports must be provided directly to OTSI, while ferry and rail reports are supplied to OTSI via the regulators and/or the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB). Read more about bus, rail and ferry occurrences.
OTSI is not able to investigate all transport safety incidents and accidents or matters that are reported. The Chief Investigator focuses the agency’s resources on those investigations considered most likely to enhance bus, ferry or rail safety by providing new safety lessons and insights that may be shared.
What happens after OTSI receives a notification?
When OTSI receives a notification, it is triaged by the Duty Officer. Depending on the nature of the event, this can lead to several different actions:
- deployment of OTSI Transport Safety Investigators to the incident site
- issuing a request to the transport operator involved for more information
- initiation of an investigation by the Chief Investigator.
Data from the incident is logged and used to identify trends and safety issues.
Find out more about how OTSI conducts investigations on the Investigation Process page.