A notifiable occurrence means an accident or incident associated with railway operations - either Category A or B or other prescribed incident.
Rail transport operators are required to verbally report Category A notifiable occurrences and prescribed incidents (rail safety incidents) to ONRSR immediately - by phoning 1800 430 888 (24 hours / 7 days).
Written reports of Category A and B notifiable occurrences are also required and must be submitted within 72 hours of the occurrence via the ONRSR Portal. Refer to the Reporting Requirements for Notifiable Occurrences for guidance on what information should be included in the report.
(Note: Following changes to the Rail Safety National Law (RSNL) in July 2019, a separate report to the ATSB is no longer required.)
Ongoing trend monitoring of reported notifiable occurrences provides vital information for input into ONRSR’s risk-based regulatory decision making processes that inform its work program.
Details of the specific occurrences that must be reported are specified under Regulation 57 & Regulation 28 of the Rail Safety National Law National Regulations and provided below - read on for clarification and definitions.
Any of the following notifiable occurrences is a Category A notifiable occurrence—
Any of the following notifiable occurrences is a Category B notifiable occurrence (unless that occurrence is also a Category A notifiable occurrence)—
Prescribed incidents are described under Regulation 28 and have caused or have the potential to cause serious injury, death or significant property damage. They may be Category A or Category B occurrences. For guidance on which occurrences are prescribed incidents, and therefore trigger mandatory testing see the Drug and Alcohol: Requirements for Rail Transport Operators fact sheet.
Drug and alcohol testing following an immediately reportable occurrence is mandated for all occurrences that are prescribed incidents. It is mandatory for accredited rail transport operators to:
While prescribed incidents include many occurrences that are already reportable as Category A, they also include certain Category B occurrences, such as certain Signals Passed at Danger (SPADs) and Light Rail or Tram Authority Exceeded (LRTAEs) occurrences, as well as serious breaches of network rules (specifically in relation to track work procedural breaches) - please refer to the document Prescribed Incidents for examples.
Note:
The requirements for prescribed incidents in NSW (Regulation 28 (2)) are unchanged and do not apply in Western Australia. ONRSR will continue to undertake post-incident testing following Category A occurrences in these jurisdictions.