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GAO-11-217R 1 (2011-01-31)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaanwf0001 and id is 1 raw text is: i ~G AO0 . A~countakbity I Integrity * Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 January 31, 2011 The Honorable Tim Johnson Chairman The Honorable Richard C. Shelby Ranking Member Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs United States Senate Subject: Rail Transit: Reliability of FTA's Rail Accident Database At the request of the former chairman of the committee and Senator Shelby, we conducted a review of challenges associated with enhancing safety on major rail transit systems.'During the course of that review, we assessed the quality of data that the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) collects and maintains in its State Safety Oversight (SSO) Rail Accident Database. FTA, an agency within the Department of Transportation (DOT), collects these safety data, including data on types of accidents and causes, from SSO agencies and the rail transit agencies they oversee.2 FTA used the SSO Rail Accident Database to produce the agency's 2009 Rail Safety Statistics Report, which analyzed data from 2003 through 2008.3Although we originally intended to report on safety trends using the SSO Rail Accident Database in the rail transit report, we determined that these data were not sufficiently reliable for such a purpose. As a result, in this review we further assess the SSO Rail Accident Database and FTA's processes for collecting and compiling the data. We determined that there are numerous inaccuracies in FTA's SSO Rail Accident Database and, consequently, the 2009 Rail Safety Statistics Report. FTA implemented changes to the data collection process over the past few years to address some of these issues. For example, FTA now requires SSO agencies to report incident specific information instead of aggregated or summary totals. In addition, FTA revised the definition of rail grade crossings to ensure consistent accident reporting by rail transit agencies, and now requests SSO agencies to provide unique incident tracking numbers to assist with data validation and prevention of duplicate entries. FTA is also working to validate and correct existing data in the SSO Rail Accident Database. Despite these 'GAO, Rail Transit: FTA Programs are Helping to Address Transit Agencies' Safety Challenges, but Improved Performance Goals and Measures Could Better Focus Efforts, GAO-11-199 (Washington, D.C.: Jan. 31, 2011). 2Through the State Safety Oversight Program, FTA monitors 27 state agencies that oversee the safety and security of rail fixed guideway systems in 26 states. See 49 C.F.R. part 659. One state, Illinois, has two oversight agencies, each overseeing a different rail transit agency. 3DOT, FTA, 2009 Rail Safety Statistics Report (Washington, D.C: 2010). GAO-11-217R FTA Rail Safety Data Reliability

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