[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 37 (Monday, February 25, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10089-10090]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-3517]



[[Page 10089]]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Transit Administration

[Docket No: FTA-2007-0013]


National Transit Database: Amendments to Safety & Security 
Reporting Manual

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration (FTA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice of availability of the final 2008 National Transit 
Database Safety & Security Reporting Manual.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: This notice announces the availability of the Federal Transit 
Administration's (FTA) 2008 National Transit Database (NTD) Safety & 
Security Reporting Manual. Pursuant to 49 U.S.C. 5335, FTA requires 
those transit agencies reporting to the NTD from urbanized areas to 
provide reports within 30 days of a major safety or security incident, 
and to provide a monthly report on minor safety and security incidents. 
The 2008 NTD Safety & Security Reporting Manual details the specific 
requirements and guidelines for safety and security reporting. On 
November 21, 2007, FTA published a notice in the Federal Register (72 
FR 65636) inviting comments on proposed changes to the 2008 NTD Safety 
& Security Reporting Manual. This notice provides responses to those 
comments, and announces the availability of the 2008 NTD Safety & 
Security Reporting Manual on the NTD Web site at http://www.ntdprogram.gov.

DATES: Effective Date: February 25, 2008.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For program issues, John D. Giorgis, 
Office of Budget and Policy, (202) 366-5430 (telephone); (202) 366-7989 
(fax); or [email protected] (e-mail). For legal issues, Richard 
Wong, Office of the Chief Counsel, (202) 366-0675 (telephone); (202) 
366-3809 (fax); or [email protected] (e-mail).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background

    The National Transit Database (NTD) is the Federal Transit 
Administration's (FTA's) primary database for statistics on the transit 
industry. Congress established the NTD to ``help meet the needs of * * 
* the public for information on which to base public transportation 
service planning * * *'' (49 U.S.C 5335). Currently, over 650 transit 
agencies in urbanized areas report to the NTD through an Internet-based 
reporting system. Since 2002, the NTD has included an expanded Safety & 
Security Module in order to meet the increased public interest in 
transit safety and security data. Data from the Safety & Security NTD 
Module are used by FTA's Office of Safety and Security, the Department 
of Homeland Security, the National Transportation Safety Board, and in 
the biennial United States Department of Transportation Conditions and 
Performance Report to Congress. NTD reporters are required to submit a 
report on major incidents to the Safety & Security Module within 30 
days of the incident, and to submit a monthly summary report of minor 
incidents within 30 days of the end of the month.
    On November 21, 2007, FTA published a notice in the Federal 
Register (72 FR 65636) inviting comments on proposed changes to the 
2008 NTD Safety & Security Manual. This notice provides responses to 
those comments, and announces the availability of the 2008 NTD Safety & 
Security Reporting Manual on the NTD Web site at http://www.ntdprogram.gov.

II. Comments and Response to Comments

    FTA received comments from four respondents on its proposed 
changes, and responds to the comments in the following order: (a) 
Injury Threshold; (b) Fire Threshold; (c) Data Continuity; (d) Acts of 
God; and (e) Other Comments.
    (a) Injury Threshold.
    All four comments objected to FTA's proposal to simplify the injury 
threshold for filing an incident report. Previously, the injury 
threshold for filing an incident report was two or more injuries 
requiring immediate medical transportation away from the scene, or one 
or more injuries requiring immediate medical transportation away from 
the scene in the case of incidents at grade crossings or along rail 
right-of-ways. FTA proposed simplifying this threshold to being simply 
one or more injuries requiring immediate medical transportation away 
from the scene. Three comments objected that this reduced threshold 
would significantly increase reporting burden for simple slips and 
falls, of which a transit agency may have dozens during a given month. 
One comment objected that this reduced threshold would require 
reporting of an incident, ``even if the operator avoids an accident and 
someone falls out of his or her seat and claims to be hurt * * *,'' and 
cited this as an additional example of the increased reporting burden 
that would result from this proposal.
    FTA Responds: Based on these comments, FTA agrees to exempt slips, 
falls, and electric shocks from the reduced injury threshold. Transit 
agencies will simply report the total number of injuries resulting from 
slips, falls, and electric shocks to transit customers, workers, and 
other persons, and the total number of occurrences of these incidents. 
This is the same as the existing reporting requirements. FTA, however, 
will proceed with the simplified single-injury threshold for other 
incidents, including collisions, fires, and security incidents. In 
particular, a collision will now require an incident report if it 
results in one or more injuries requiring immediate medical transport 
away from the scene, regardless of location. FTA notes that the 
increased reporting burden of this requirement is offset somewhat by 
raising the property damage threshold from $7,500 to $25,000, which is 
the threshold used by FTA's State Safety Oversight Program. In the case 
where ``an operator avoids an accident and someone falls out of his or 
her seat and claims to be hurt * * *,'' FTA will update the 2008 NTD 
Safety & Security Reporting Manual to reflect that such injuries may be 
classified as a ``fall.'' Thus, such an incident would not require 
filing an incident report. FTA also notes that injuries are not 
reported to the NTD on the basis of passenger claims of injury; an 
injury is only reported to the NTD when it results in immediate medical 
transportation away from the scene.
    (b) Fire Threshold.
    Two comments objected to FTA's proposal to require an incident 
report for all fires requiring suppression on the basis that this would 
be a significant increase in reporting burden.
    FTA Responds: Based on these comments, FTA drops its proposal to 
require an incident report for all fires requiring suppression. Rather, 
FTA will require an incident report only for those fires that meet the 
established threshold criteria of:
     One or more fatalities;
     One or more injuries requiring immediate medical 
transportation away from the scene;
     Property damage greater than or equal to $25,000; or
     An evacuation for life safety reasons.

    For fires that require suppression, but which do not meet one of 
the established threshold criteria, transit agencies will simply report 
a summary total each month for each of four location categories. These 
four categories are: (1) In transit vehicles; (2) in revenue 
facilities; (3) in non-revenue facilities; and, (4) on right-of-way. 
This is similar to the existing reporting requirements, except for the 
increased property damage threshold and the lower injury threshold.

[[Page 10090]]

    (c) Data Continuity.
    Two comments objected to FTA's proposal on the grounds that it 
would create discontinuous safety and security data for transit. Three 
areas of discontinuity were cited in the comments: (1) Data for 
injuries; (2) data for fatalities; and, (3) data for major incidents. 
Additionally, one comment expressed concern that FTA's proposal would 
cause transit to appear less safe.
    FTA Responds: FTA notes that while it is changing the injury 
threshold for filing an incident report, it is not changing the 
definition of an injury. Summary totals have previously been collected 
for injuries and incidents that did not require transit agencies to 
file a major incident report. As such, this proposal will not impact 
the continuity of data on total transit injuries.
    FTA also notes that while it will be including suicides in the 
definition of fatalities, it has previously collected data on all 
fatalities, including suicides. As such, FTA will take great care to 
ensure that it always uses continuous data series in reporting transit 
fatalities. FTA will also continue to make available detailed transit 
fatality data, which will allow data users to exclude suicides from 
their analysis of transit fatalities.
    FTA does note that these changes will cause some difficulty in 
assembling continuous data on the total number of major transit 
incidents. Based on previously filed major incident reports, however, 
FTA does hope to assemble a continuous data series from 2002--present 
on major transit incidents. To the extent that discontinuous data 
series on major transit incidents do result from these changes, FTA 
believes that the negative impacts of discontinuity are more than 
offset by the benefits to transit agencies of reduced reporting 
requirements. The reduced reporting requirements will apply to 
incidents that produce no fatalities and injuries, and between the old 
threshold of $7,500 in property damage and the new threshold of $25,000 
in property damage.
    (d) Acts of God.
    Two comments requested additional clarification of FTA's proposal 
to add ``Acts of God'' as a reportable incident. One comment asked how 
FTA's proposal for ``Acts of God'' would relate to various legal 
definitions for this term.
    FTA Responds: This proposal originated from the experiences of some 
transit agencies in filing NTD Safety & Security reports. Some agencies 
have notified NTD staff that they have suffered property damage in 
excess of the reporting threshold as a result of a severe storm or 
flood, but have been unable to complete an incident report for this 
occurrence, as the NTD did not account for such ``Acts of God.'' As 
such, FTA is adding this category to allow transit agencies to account 
for the impacts of ``Acts of God'' on transit facilities. FTA will make 
clear in the 2008 NTD Safety & Security Reporting Manual that it is not 
FTA's intent to require transit agencies to assess such ``Acts of God'' 
as potential contributing factors to a collision.
    (e) Other Comments.
    One comment expressed concern about the reporting burden of adding 
accidents involving non-revenue vehicles and adding hazardous material 
spills as reportable incidents. One comment expressed concern about FTA 
collecting information on ``light in the eyes'' in regard to 
collisions, and asked if this referred only to sunlight or also to 
headlights.
    FTA Responds: FTA notes that existing reporting requirements 
already require an incident report for collisions involving non-revenue 
vehicles when those collisions exceed the reporting threshold. This is 
unchanged. FTA also notes that existing reporting requirements required 
reporting hazardous material spills when such spills resulted in an 
evacuation for life safety reasons. FTA's proposal only slightly 
modifies this by requiring a report whenever a hazardous material spill 
causes ``imminent danger to life, health, or the environment, and had 
special attention given at the time of the incident.'' FTA does not 
believe that clarification of the definition will cause a significant 
increase in reporting burden from the previous definition. FTA will 
clarify in the 2008 NTD Safety & Security Reporting Manual and in the 
reporting system itself that the question of ``light in the eyes'' 
refers to sunlight.
    Two comments expressed concern about the short lead time between 
the public notice-and-comment on FTA's proposal and the scheduled 
implementation of the proposal.
    FTA responds: FTA recognizes the concern of transit agencies to 
have ample time to review proposed changes to the NTD data collection. 
FTA will ensure that more lead time is given for public notice-and-
comment for future amendments to the NTD Safety & Security Reporting 
Manual, and will allow more time for a collaborative development 
process with the transit industry. In order to support implementation 
of the 2008 NTD Safety & Security Reporting Manual, FTA has scheduled 
six training sessions around the country to assist transit agencies in 
implementing the new requirements. Technical assistance is also 
available to transit agencies at any time through their NTD data 
validation analyst.
    The final 2008 NTD Safety & Security Reporting Manual is available 
on the NTD Web site at http://www.ntdprogram.gov.

    Issued in Washington, DC, this 20th day of February 2008.
James S. Simpson,
Administrator.
 [FR Doc. E8-3517 Filed 2-22-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-57-P