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.
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:
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.
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:
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.