OTTAWA — The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says Transport Canada is making “little or no advancement” in fixing some key safety risks plaguing air, rail and marine transportation.
The annual Transportation Safety Board report, tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, highlighted numerous safety concerns and problematic statistics affecting the various modes of transportation, including pipelines, but particularly regarding the aviation industry.
“Looking ahead, we want to see a more concerted effort from (Transport Canada) and from our marine, rail, and aviation industries,” said the 2012-2013 report, submitted to Conservative government House Leader Peter Van Loan on June 19, 2013. “We’ll monitor what happens, too, making the results public so that all Canadians can see progress when it’s made—and when it isn’t.“
The report’s release also coincided with new calls on Friday from the board for an urgent review of rail safety, in the wake of the Lac-Megantic runaway train disaster that claimed dozens of lives earlier this month in the small Quebec town.
[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]Transport Minister Lisa Raitt “has directed Transport Canada officials to review these (recommendations) on an expedited basis,” spokeswoman Ashley Kelahear said, referring to the board’s latest response to the Quebec disaster, calling for a review of measures to secure trains and unattended equipment on tracks.
The House of Commons transport committee is also being asked to hold hearings next week on rail safety in response to a request by NDP transport critic Olivia Chow.
In terms of pipelines, the board’s report listed 173 incidents in 2012, up from 167 in 2011 and well above the five-year average of 116. The board said 85 per cent of those incidents involved uncontained or uncontrolled releases of small quantities of gas, oil and high-vapour-pressure products.
“To better understand this recent increase, the TSB carried out a detailed review of the incident data, and has launched consultations with the pipeline industry,” said the report.
Overall, the board noted it had made numerous recommendations in recent years for the various modes of transportation, but that Canadians weren’t seeing “the kind of change they deserve.”
“While some positive change has taken place, the board remains concerned that not enough has been done to address outstanding safety issues, most alarmingly in aviation,” said the report.
One of the key risks related to airplane landing accidents that could be addressed by improving the runways, the report said, noting that there was about one plane overshooting the runway every month.
“As Canada now lags behind international standards, the TSB will continue to call upon (Transport Canada) and airports to better prevent landing accidents and runway overruns.”
While the report also highlighted numerous risks related to aviation security, it recognized some “notable improvements” in the rail sector in 2012-2013, with 90 per cent of its recommendations addressed since 1991.
But it said some recommendations to improve signal indicators and computer systems needed upgrades to prevent serious risks of collisions or derailments.
It said that the federal department and railways were exploring locomotive computer systems to include signal recognition and air brake control capabilities, but that there was “no formal strategy developed to adapt either emerging technology or existing on-board computer systems to provide fail-safe physical train control defences.”
The report also noted that only four out of 13 of its active recommendations were fully addressed.
The board’s chairwoman, Wendy Tadros, said its updated safety watchlist makes it clear that “much work remains” to be done.
“That means we need to find new ways to get our message out there, and work even harder to convince regulators and change agents to help improve Canada’s transportation system and reduce the number of accidents,” she said in the report.
Industry associations representing pipelines and railways did not immediately respond to questions from Postmedia News. The National Airlines Council of Canada declined to comment on the report.
