FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 11, 1999 SB-99-17

NTSB HIGHLIGHTS ‘MOST WANTED’ TRANSPORTATION SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS

Washington DC - The National Transportation Safety Board has targeted 10 issues as its priorities for improving transportation safety within the United States.

“I believe that every single one of our recommendations is important and when implemented will improve safety.” Chairman Jim Hall said. “But some recommendations have greater potential to save lives. Those are the ones we’ve turned the spotlight on by putting them on our Most Wanted List.”

Ten safety improvements comprise the Board’s Most Wanted list, which was updated at a public meeting today. Revisions made to the list include:

• The category title of “Youth Highway Crashes” has been amended to “Child/ Youth Safety In Transportation” and will consolidate all child/youth-related recommendations. Four new recommendations addressing child restraint fitting stations and one recommendation addressing restraints for infants and small children on passenger aircraft were added.
• Seven recommendations were added to the “Automatic Information Recording Device” category. Two recommendations urge the installation of automatic/tamperproof recorders in heavy trucks; five are related to aviation issues including the number of parameters recorded and an independent power source for cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder units.
• Other issue areas which have new safety recommendations added include Human Fatigue, Excavation Damage Prevention to Underground Facilities, Airframe and Structural Icing, and Recreational Boating Safety.

Issues highlighted on the Most Wanted list are as follows:

• Automatic information recording devices. Require adequate recording devices on all types of vehicles, such as flight data recorders on aircraft and voyage event recorders on ships. Modern recording devices do much more than help solve accidents. They are valuable tools in spotting safety trends and preventing accidents.
• Positive train separation. Mandate the installation of automated systems to stop trains when crewmembers make signal or speed mistakes, or are incapacitated. Federal Railroad Administration data show that more than 1,000 train accidents could have been prevented by positive train separation systems.
• Human fatigue in transportation operations. Translate the latest human fatigue research into new, meaningful time and duty-hour regulations and educational materials for workers in all modes of transportation. Government and industry have already spent $30 million on human fatigue research.
• Airport runway incursions. Move forward with current and new programs aimed at preventing accidents involving aircraft while they are on the ground at airports. This is vitally important because the number and rate of runway incursions has shown an alarming four-year increase.
• Child/Youth safety in transportation. Toughen and enforce minimum drinking and driving laws and enact laws mandating a provisional license system and nighttime restrictions for young novice drivers. Educate the public about transporting children in the back seat, provide help buckling child restraints in cars through fitting stations and require restraints for infants and small children on airplanes. Design the back seats of cars for children.
• Excavation damage prevention to underground facilities. Urge the federal government to increase its role in excavation damage prevention programs and review of state programs to improve them. Outside damage is the leading cause of pipeline ruptures.
• Recreational boating safety. Require states to implement a series of boating safety improvements, educational programs and regulations for recreational boats, including personal watercraft. More than 800 people were killed in recreational boating accidents in 1997 and more than 700 the year before. The quick growth of personal watercraft has been accompanied by an increase in accidents and deaths.
• Highway vehicle occupant protection. Require a series of safety improvements to air bags and strengthen seat belt laws.
• Airframe structural icing. Revise federal aircraft icing regulations based on up-to-date research on icing weather conditions. Conduct research with the goal of developing new on-board systems to detect and protect aircraft against freezing drizzle.
• Explosive mixtures in fuel tanks on transport category aircraft. Require design and operational modifications to reduce the potential for explosive fuel-air mixtures in fuel tanks of large aircraft.

Also discussed at the meeting was the Board’s frustration with long standing recommendations including those to amend hours-of-service regulations made to the Department of Transportation 10 years ago.

For more information, visit the NTSB web site at www.ntsb.gov.

Media contact: Lauren Peduzzi (202) 314-6100