Summary
Any accident that results in a serious injury or loss of life can have profound
effects. A fatality begins a complex process of grieving for those close to
the individuals involved. Families and friends naturally want to know why the
accident happened.
This brochure attempts to answer some of the questions you may have about an
investigation conducted by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).
The ATSB is an operationally independent body within the Australian Government
Department of Transport and Regional Services and is Australia’s prime
agency for transport safety investigations. The bureau is entirely separate
from transport regulators and service providers. The ATSB’s objective
is safe transport. Its mission is to maintain and improve transport safety and
public confidence through excellence in:
- independent investigation of transport accidents and other safety occurrences;
- safety data recording, analysis and research; and
- fostering safety awareness, knowledge and action.
The ATSB performs its functions in accordance with the provisions of the Transport
Safety Investigation Act 2003 (TSI Act). Section 7 of the TSI Act indicates
that the object of the Act is to improve transport safety through, among other
things, independent investigations of transport accidents and incidents and
the making of safety action statements and recommendations that draw on the
results of those investigations. It is not the purpose of ATSB investigations
to lay blame or provide a means for determining liability.
The ATSB is entirely separate from transport regulatory authorities such as
the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), the Australian Maritime Safety Authority
(AMSA) and state and territory rail safety regulators.
Accident investigations
The ATSB does not investigate all accidents. It focuses its limited resources
on fatal and other accidents required to be investigated under international
agreements and those it believes will yield the most useful safety knowledge,
particularly for fare-paying passenger operations.
Under provisions of the TSI Act, ATSB investigators may interview anyone involved
directly or indirectly in a transport safety occurrence.
It will sometimes be necessary to gather information on crew activities in the
days before the accident. You may be asked for information on recent rest periods,
sleeping patterns, medication, work history and other important aspects. Discussing
these matters while grieving can be difficult, so we encourage you to invite
other family members or friends to support you during the interview.
To gather relevant information, the ATSB may:
- attend the accident site to collect evidence;
- interview any witnesses and other relevant persons;
- obtain additional information relevant to the investigation from a number
of different sources;
- conduct tests and research, as appropriate; and
- analyse data recorders, such as aircraft cockpit voice recorders and flight
data recorders, air traffic control tapes, train data loggers and ship voyage
data recorders.
For significant investigations, a draft report will be prepared for ‘directly
involved parties’ to comment on before the report is made available to
the public. Directly involved parties normally include the operating crew, the
transport operator, the transport regulator, and any other person or organisation
whose reputation is likely to be directly affected following public release
of the report. These parties will generally have at least several weeks to provide
comment and present evidence in support of the comments.
The bureau will carefully consider these comments before it releases its final
report. A person is not permitted to copy or disclose the contents of a draft
report except for the purpose of providing comments to the ATSB on the draft
report or to take safety action in response to the report’s findings.
As next of kin, you are generally not classified as a directly involved party
unless you have specialist technical knowledge or are directly involved in the
circumstances and issues that contributed to the accident. This means that normally
you will not be involved at the draft report stage and will not be asked to
provide comment.
The bureau will seek to keep you informed as the investigation proceeds. Please
check that we have accurate, up-to-date details of your postal address and other
contact details. You can contact us using the information at the back of this
brochure.
In general, you can expect a preliminary report usually within 30 days of a
major accident and regular interim reports (usually every six months) until
the final investigation report is completed. These reports will cover factual
information, but will not include analysis.
A copy of the final report will normally be available to you and your immediate
family several days before its public release.
Other investigations
Because the ATSB’s role is to identify significant safety factors and
not to lay blame, our report may not contain all the answers you seek. The following
organisations, however, may undertake further investigation:
- Your state or territory coroner may hold an inquest or inquiry into a fatal
transport accident. The coronial investigation and the ATSB investigation
are complementary. The Coroner’s Office, should be contacted on all
matters relating to an inquest or inquiry. Coronial services can also offer
face to face assistance and advice, and some Coronial jurisdictions provide
grief counselling and other support by means of trained professionals.
- The transport regulatory authority such as the Civil Aviation Safety Authority
(CASA), the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), state and territory
rail safety regulators, or the police. These bodies may also conduct an investigation
to determine whether there has been a breach of any legislation.
Investigation reports
ATSB investigation reports do not include the names of individuals. In many
situations, however, an individual’s position (for example, the ‘pilot
in command’, ship’s Master, locomotive driver) may need to be stated
so that the reports makes sense and lessons can be learned by others.
The bureau provides copies of final investigation reports to the public. They
are also available at the Bureau’s website www.atsb.gov.au
Your contact with the ATSB
Our investigators are very conscious of the loss you have experienced. We recognise
that it may be appropriate to contact you through a family member or close friend
or at a time that is more suitable to you.
If you do not have a phone number for a member of the investigation team,
please call 1800 020 616 during business hours and ask for an investigation
update. If you would rather contact us by email at atsbinfo@atsb.gov.au
remember to mark the e-mail ‘Attention: Information and Coordination
Team Leader’.
Download Complete Document: Next_of_kin [ PDF: 601Kb]
Type: Corporate Brochure
Publication Date: 06/06/08
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