b'R M U CA ST I STAT Y T A M A S L I A F E I L S RYThe thousands of rail safety occurrences reported each year are categorised and analysed over time to build a picture of safety performance across the rail industry. This occurrence (or incident) picture provides insight into potential safety areas which may require attention at the individual operator, sector or industry level. Notifiable occurrences are an importantThe national rail safety data set introduced oncontribution to ONRSRs risk-based regulatory1 July 2022, requires rail transport operators to approach. These types of events, frequency,include chain (or sequence) of events information actual or potential consequences and theirwhen reporting notifiable occurrences. This causal or contributing factors, form an importantinformation along with additional data items input into ONRSRs understanding of whereenable a deeper analysis of incidents which rail safety risks are presenting across thecan then guide actions to improve rail safety industry. Events that result in more significantthrough better identification, monitoring and consequences or have the potential for greaterunderstanding of higher risk eventsi.e. those harm are the focus of this report. that result in more significant consequences or To improve rail safety and evaluate thehave the potential for greater risk of harmwhich effectiveness of risk controls, the chain ofsupports good decision making and improved events that led up to an occurrence must besafety performance. clearly understood. It is important to considerThis year charts have been introduced into that incidents are not singular events but ratherthe Rail Safety Statistical Summary which use are the result of a series of sequential events.selected additional data items to provide further Understanding this sequence, supports theanalysis and breakdowns to deliver an improved identification and interrogation of risk controlsunderstanding of the chain of events that are intended to prevent or reduce the impact of anassociated with occurrences.Benchmarking of incident. It also enables the identification ofAustralian occurrence data against international stronger or additional risk control measuresperformance has again been included for the which could improve the management of risks USA and UK, and extended to include Canada to safety.and several European countries which highlights selected events, judged as the more serious of the year.14 ONRSR Rail Safety Report 20232024'