UNPACKING OCCURRENCE REPORTING

The reporting requirements of the Railway Safety Regulator (RSR), which form part of the Annual State of Safety Report, are contained in the South African National Standards SANS 3000-1:2009 edition 2. The Standard defines and classifies occurrences into categories to be used by the operators in their reporting to the RSR.

Occurrence data is classified into two broad areas: operational occurrences and security-related incidents.

• Operational occurrences: these fall directly within the mandate of the RSR as prescribed by the Act. The Regulator plays a primary role in addressing these occurrences.
• Security-related incidents: the RSR plays a supporting and advocacy role. This is further amplified through monitoring and support of the efforts by other organs of state in addressing the associated problems. The South African Police Services’ Railway Police is the primary partner in this regard.

RSR REPORTS AND TIMELINES

How does reporting work?

The reports are differentiated in accordance with the SANS and are classified as immediate reports, daily reports, quarterly reports and ad-hoc reports.

• What is an immediate report?

The immediate report is basically an alert. The operator contacts the RSR telephonically and presents the occurrence or incident using the information that is available on site. This does not need to be accurate information, but effort must be made to register the report using as much gathered occurrence or incident data as possible.

• What is a daily report?

The daily report gives a picture of daily occurrences and is a written or National Information Management System (NIMS) populated report. If written or typed, the RSR Daily Occurrence Reporting template (R

SR/ASS/253/1) must be used. If reporting by means of NIMS, the NIMS reporting protocol must be followed. It is important to take note of the following when compiling daily reports:

• All the occurrences and/or incidents reported under the immediate report should be included in the daily occurrence report.
• The daily occurrence report should provide a brief detail, possible category and brief description of the occurrence or incident.
• Should more than one operator be involved in an occurrence or incident, both operators are expected to submit separate reports for the same occurrence or incident.
• These reports should reach the RSR no later than 11H00, daily.
• What is a quarterly report?

The quarterly reports are a total of all occurrences and incidents recorded by the operator during the quarter under review totalling what has transpired during the quarter . If written or typed, the RSR Daily Occurrence Reporting template (RSR/ASS/252) must be used. If reporting using NIMS, the NIMS reporting protocol must be followed. If the operator has recorded a zero occurrence or incident quarter, a quarterly report

populated with zeros should be submitted using the template or NIMS must have totals for the kilometres and the signature of the Nominated Manager as a true reflection of what has transpired during the quarter. There are four quarters during any reporting period. Quarter 1: April to June; Quarter 2: July to September; Quarter 3: October to December and Quarter 4: January to March. At the end of each quarter, the Regulator grants operators 30 days to submit their quarterly reports. Failure to submit during this time period can lead to a penalty.

• What is an ad-hoc report?

Ad-hoc reports must be compiled by the operator within 24 hours of the occurrence or incident. These are preliminary reports which the RSR is empowered by law to request at any given time. These reports contain investigation information of an occurrence or incident since the RSR SANS dictates that all occurrences and incidents must be investigated. These reports are not sent to the RSR unless requested.

OCCURRENCE AND INCIDENTS CATEGORIES

Explain incidents categories

With reference to SANS 3000-1: 2009 edition 2, operational occurrence and security-related incident data are captured in relevant categories which are broken down into sub-categories to facilitate analysis. Operational occurrences are captured in 12 categories (A-L) and the security-related incidents are captured in nine categories (1-9); each category has subcategories. A detailed listing of the categories and subcategories can be found in SANS 3000-1:2009 edition 2, clauses 7.2 and 10.2 respectively.

THE VALUE OF REPORTING

The value of any safety performance report depends to a large degree on the quality of the data on which it is based. Poor data quality can be attributed to several factors, including under-reporting, late reporting or poor supply of information. Coupled to this, the RSR issued guidelines to all operators to ensure correct data recording and reporting.