Brochure
Our Mission
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is an independent agency that makes transportation safer by investigating marine, pipeline, rail and air transportation accidents and communicating the results to Canadians.
This Watchlist identifies the safety issues investigated by the TSB that pose the greatest risk to Canadians.
In each case, actions taken to date are inadequate and concrete steps must be taken on the part of industry and the regulator to eliminate these risks.
More details about these transportation safety issues are available on this website.
For more information, contact the TSB Communications Branch by telephone at 819-994-8053 or by e-mail at communications@bst-tsb.gc.ca.
Aviation
Problem
There is ongoing risk that aircraft may collide with vehicles or other aircraft on the ground at Canadian airports.
Solution
Improved procedures and the adoption of enhanced collision warning systems are required at Canada's airports.
Problem
Fatalities continue to occur when planes collide with land and water while under crew control.
Solution
Wider use of technology is needed to help pilots assess their proximity to terrain.
Problem
Landing accidents and runway overruns continue to occur at Canadian airports.
Solution
In bad weather, pilots need to receive timely information about runway surface conditions.
Airports need to lengthen the safety areas at the end of runways or install other engineered systems and structures to safely stop planes that overrun.
Marine
Problem
The number of accidents involving loss of life on fishing vessels remains too high.
Solution
Industry needs to adopt and promote safe operating procedures and practices to increase safety knowledge of fishing vessel operators.
Government should work with industry to improve training and awareness and provide a stronger regulatory framework to support these initiatives.
Problem
Emergency preparedness on large passenger ferries operating in Canada needs improvement.
Solution
Large ferry operators must adopt and practice effective emergency preparedness procedures. This includes maintaining detailed passengers lists and practicing evacuations.
Multi-Modal
Problem
Implemented properly, safety management systems (SMS) allow transportation companies to identify hazards, manage risks, and develop and follow effective safety processes.
However, TC does not always provide effective oversight of transportation companies transitioning to SMS, while some companies are not even required to have one.
Solution
Marine: TC should require domestic commercial shipping operations to adopt SMS.
Rail: Through audits and inspections, TC must proactively monitor SMS practices to ensure they are effectively applied by railways.
Air: The integration of SMS practices into day-to-day operations must be closely monitored by TC to ensure that industry, as a whole, makes a smooth transition to an SMS environment.
Problem
Data critical to understanding how and why transportation accidents happen are frequently lost, damaged or not required to be collected.
Solution
Marine: Operators of large domestic passenger ferries in Canada should be required by TC to install voyage data recorders consistent with international standards and practices.
Rail: Industry needs to expand adoption of recently improved recorder standards to prevent the loss of data following collisions and derailments.
Air: Global efforts are required to build better recorders, to enhance the quality and duration of their recordings, and to ensure they keep recording when the power supply fails.
Rail
Problem
The risk of passenger trains colliding with vehicles remains too high in busy rail corridors.
Solution
Transport Canada (TC) and the railways must conduct safety assessments to identify high-risk crossings along busy passenger train routes and make the necessary safety improvements.
Problem
Inappropriate handling and marshalling can compromise the safe operation of longer, heavier trains.
Solution
Railways need to take further steps to ensure the appropriate handling and marshalling of longer, heavier trains. Detailed risk assessments are required whenever operating practices change.