FTA Bus Safety Program and SMS for Small Agencies

1. National RTAP 101 Webinar Series: FTA Bus Safety Program and SMS for Small Agencies December 1, 2015 U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Transit Administration

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6. National RTAP 101 Webinar Series: FTA Bus Safety Program and SMS for Small Agencies December 1, 2015 U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Transit Administration

7. Webinar Presenters: Moderated by Joseph PowellFTA’s Bus Safety Program Manager Presentations by: Erik Larson and Ream LazaroBoyd, Caton & Grant Transportation Group, Inc (BCG).

8. FTA Bus Safety ProgramandSafety Management Systems National RTAP Webinar December 1, 2015

9. Webinar Agenda • Introductory remarks • Joseph Powell, FTA • FTA Bus Safety Program Overview • Erik Larson, BCG • Safety Management Systems (SMS) • Ream Lazaro, BCG • Question and Answer period

10. Erik LarsonBoyd, Caton & Grant Transportation Group, Inc (BCG). • Serves as the contractor project manager for FTA’s Bus Safety Oversight Program and manages projects for FTA’s State Safety Oversight Program and FTA’s Safety Management Systems (SMS) effort.  • Worked as a fixed route bus driver, a bus operator trainer, and was the Safety and Training Manager for a paratransit agency in Virginia. He is a Certified Community Transportation Manager (CCTM) and certified PASS Trainer. • Erik has assisted in the creation and delivery of many of FTA’s SMS Training Courses including SMS Awareness, SMS Principles for Rail Transit Agencies, and SMS Principles for Bus Transit Agencies.  • Supports the development of FTA’s web-based e-Learning modules and FTA’s new Transit Safety & Oversight website.

11. Ream LazaroBoyd, Caton & Grant Transportation Group, Inc (BCG). • Actively involved with the development and delivery of the Federal Transit Administration Transit Bus Safety Program and FTA’s Safety Management System initiatives. • 38 years of experience working on safety, security and training in urban and rural transit systems. Managed safety and training in bus and rail public transit operations located in Washington D.C. (WMATA), New Jersey (NJ Transit) and Utah (Utah Transit Authority). • Provided support for the safety and security initiatives of the Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) and the National Transit Institute (NTI).

12. FTA Bus Safety Program Overview

13. FTA Bus Safety Program Background • Voluntary program but moving to an oversight role • Developed in collaboration with industry partners (APTA, CTAA, AASHTO) • Objective – improve safety for passengers, employees, and all that share roadways with transit buses • Initial focus on small urban / rural bus transit systems • Now includes large urban bus transit systems

14. Major Bus Program Elements Safety and training resource website Voluntary onsite reviews Orientation seminars Ongoing outreach

15. FTA’sSafety and Training Resource Website • http://safety.fta.dot.gov/

16. Safety Management Systems (SMS)

17. What FTA wants…from a safety perspective • Make a safe industry even safer • Foster sound safety policy • Develop and share efficient practices for risk management and safety assurance • Help grow a strong safety culture within every transit system

18. What should change look like? Accountability is properly placed Agency-wide reporting and communication of safety issues Proactive investigation of hazards Tools to monitor safety performance Effective and efficient assurance activities Balanced decision-making regarding safety risk within operations and planning

19. Questions we need to ask that SMS helps answer What are our most serious safety concerns? How do we know this? What are we doing about it? Is what we are doing working? How do we know what we are doing is working?

20. Critical Concerns • Two critical safety related concerns that demonstrate the need for SMS: • The Organizational Accident • Practical Drift

21. The Organizational Accident

22. Two Types of Accidents • Individual accidents • those resulting from the actions or inactions of people • Organizational accidents • those resulting from actions or inactions of organizations

23. Organizational Accidents “Organizational accidents have multiple causes involving many people operating at different levels of their respective companies.” • James Reason, Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents

24. Organizational Accident and SMS A critical tool in the transit risk management process is identifying and analyzing organizational factors that may contribute to accidents and incidents.

25. Human Error “The discovery of human error should be considered the starting point of the investigation, not the ending point.” - ISASI Forum • Individuals do not cause organizational accidents • Individuals trigger conditions leading to organizational accidents • Organizational accidents have deeper and broader roots Module 2 - Slide 20

26. Practical Drift

27. Imperfect Systems – The Practical Drift “Uncoupling of practice from procedure” “Work as imagined” System and Tasks as designed and engineered • Why? What happened? • Service delivery pressures • Procedure no longer practical • Short cuts are more efficient • Supervisor allows it • Informal processes • Training inadequately conveyed risk Over Time Start of Operations Procedure Practical Drift Local Reality “Work as actually done” Practice

28. Navigating the Drift – The Need for Data Baseline Performance Practical Drift Organization The difference between “where we are” and “where we thought we were” Operational Performance

29. Practical Drift and SMS Monitoring individual and organizational safety performance allows a transit agency to identify if, how, and why practical drift has occurred and assists in assuring safe operations.

30. SMS Overview

31. What is SMS? SMS is the formal, top-down,organization-wide, data-driven approach to managing safety risk and assuring the effectiveness of safety risk mitigations. It includes systematic policies, procedures, and practices for the management of safety risk.

32. SMS Framework Components Safety Management Policy Safety Risk Management Safety Assurance Safety Promotion

33. Safety Management Policy

34. Safety Management Policy Component and its Subcomponents • Establishes necessary organizational structures, roles, and responsibilities • Ensures safety is addressed with the same priority as other critical organizational functions • Provides direction for effective: • Safety Risk Management • Safety Assurance • Safety Promotion • Helps ensure sufficient resources are provided to meet safety objectives SafetyManagement Policy Safety Accountabilities & Responsibilities Integration with Public Safety & Emergency Management Safety Management Policy Statement SMS Documentation & Records

35. The Safety Management Policy Statement Subcomponent • The safety management policy statement is the charter of an SMS • It must clearly and succinctly frame the fundamentals upon which the transit agency SMS will operate • A safety management policy statement may not exceed a page or two SafetyManagement Policy Safety Accountabilities & Responsibilities Integration with Public Safety & Emergency Management Safety Management Policy Statement SMS Documentation & Records

36. Safety Accountabilities & Responsibilities Subcomponent • Safety is not the sole responsibility of any single person • This is where transit agency organizational structure is defined • Critical to detail safety accountabilities and responsibilities for: • Accountable Executive/Transit Manager • Person responsible for safety • Supervisors • Front line employees SafetyManagement Policy Safety Accountabilities & Responsibilities Integration with Public Safety & Emergency Management Safety Management Policy Statement SMS Documentation & Records

37. Integration with Public Safety & Emergency Management Subcomponent • Ensures integration of programs that have input into, or output from, the SMS • Identifies and describes the interface with external organizations including law enforcement and emergency management • Ensures coordination in planning for and responding to transit related security events and community emergencies SafetyManagement Policy Safety Accountabilities & Responsibilities Integration with Public Safety & Emergency Management Safety Management Policy Statement SMS Documentation & Records

38. SMS Documentation & Records Subcomponent • Agency ensures that it formalizes and documents key elements of SMS such as: • Safety Management Policy Statement • SMS requirements • SMS processes and procedures • SMS Accountabilities, responsibilities, and authorities • Documentation is scalable for smaller transit agencies, but must be sufficient to support the processes within SMS SafetyManagement Policy Safety Accountabilities & Responsibilities Integration with Public Safety & Emergency Management Safety Management Policy Statement SMS Documentation & Records

39. Safety Risk Management

40. SRM Component and its Subcomponents • Vital to the success of SMS • Before an SMS can be effectively built or improved, safety hazards must be identified in your operation and mitigations need to be in place to manage the safety risk • Safety risk management is a continuous process SafetyRisk Management Safety Risk Evaluation & Mitigation Hazard Identification & Analysis

41. Hazard Identification & Analysis Subcomponent • The only way to know safety risk prior to an accident • Provides foundation for safety risk evaluation activities • Must be agency-wide and fully supported and promoted SafetyRisk Management Safety Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Hazard Identification & Analysis

42. Safety Risk Evaluation & Mitigation Subcomponent • Safety Risk Evaluation • Provides a way to measure potential consequences of identified hazards • Evaluates how existing defenses could mitigate the consequences • Helps determine whether certain safety risk is acceptable, while others require risk mitigation • Data driven - safety resource allocations are more logical • Safety Risk Mitigation • Enables us to “manage” safety risk • Aim is to reduce safety risks to an acceptable level • Provides course of action that is monitored by the Safety Assurance function SafetyRisk Management Hazard Identification & Analysis Safety Risk Evaluation and Mitigation

43. Safety Assurance

44. Safety Assurance Component and its Subcomponents • A continuous process, constantly interacting with Safety Risk Management • Where safety performance data is collected and analyzed • Systematic and ongoing monitoring and recording of an agency’s safety performance • Helps verify an agency’s safety performance is in line with safety objectives and targets SafetyAssurance Safety performance monitoring & measurement Management of change Continuous improvement

45. Safety Performance Monitoring & Measurement Subcomponent • Safety management requires feedback on safety performance to complete the safety management cycle • Safety performance monitoring and measurement provides that feedback SafetyAssurance Safety performance monitoring & measurement Management of change Continuous improvement

46. Management of Change Subcomponent • Change may inadvertently introduce hazards • Ensures that operational changes or proposed changes do not introduce new hazards • Changes can affect appropriateness of existing safety risk mitigations • ALL changes need to be evaluated SafetyAssurance Safety performance monitoring & measurement Management of change Continuous improvement

47. Continuous Improvement Subcomponent • Performance measures are established to monitor various components of SMS • This helps ensure safety risk mitigations are working and agency safety performance objectives are being met SafetyAssurance Safety performance monitoring & measurement Management of change Continuous improvement

48. Safety Promotion

49. Safety Promotion Component and its Subcomponents SafetyPromotion Safety Communication Competencies and Training

50. Safety Communication Subcomponent • SMS relies on continuous management commitment to communication • One of management’s most important responsibilities under SMS is to encourage and motivate others to want to communicate openly, authentically, and without concern for reprisal SafetyPromotion Safety Communication Competencies and Training