Malaysia needs to set up National Transportation Safety Board

This is in line with the government’s aspiration for the highest transportation safety standards.

COMMENT

A registry of experienced transport safety professionals should be maintained for them to be co-opted for investigation of major accidents at short notice. (Bernama pic)

By Dr Krishnan Rajam

The need for an independent full-time transport safety agency is in keeping with the expanding transport sector and the government’s aspiration for the highest transportation safety standards.

The setting up of a National Transportation Safety Board needs consultation with a wide array of stakeholders, including government agencies within and outside of the transport sector, and professional organisations.

The following aspects need detailed deliberation:

Objectives of the board

Training, research, independent investigation of transport crashes, sharing of inter-agency expertise in crash investigation and reporting to the public.

As the objective of the board is to promote safety, the cardinal principles for the independent investigation of crashes (and critical incidents) are non-contestability of reports in a court of law and not to apportion blame/determining liability for punitive action.

In the United States, the National Transportation Safety Board Disaster Assistance Division takes on the additional responsibility of coordination of support for families of transportation disaster victims.

Organisational structure

Ideally, such an independent board should consist of “technical” members rather than “administrative” members.

A registry of experienced transport safety professionals, who can be co-opted for investigation at short notice, should be maintained.

Miros

The Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) should be upgraded into a Transportation Safety Research Institute for investigation of all transport crashes (and critical incidents).

A research institute with cross-disciplinary expertise, sharing of experience among different transport modes and close collaboration with universities will bring many intangible safety benefits to the transport sector to prepare ourselves for a developed nation status.

Miros (with its crash investigation and reconstruction expertise) is best suited to undertake these additional responsibilities.

The proposed Transportation Safety Research Institute is ideally suited to be the secretariat for the National Transportation Safety Board.

The main impediments to the setting up of such a board and institute is the relative dearth of cross-disciplinary sharing of safety expertise, “turf” issues in the investigation of crashes and absence of a mechanism for public reporting of crash investigations.

These can be overcome by sincere stakeholder discussions and adequate training.

The process of setting up the proposed board and institute requires a complete review of existing transport safety investigation mechanisms.

While waiting for due formal processes, the preparation of a register of experienced transport safety professionals could be initiated, at the very least.

Prof Dr Krishnan Rajam is head of the Department of Family Medicine, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and University College Dublin (UCD), Malaysia Campus, Penang. -FMT