National RTAP 101 Webinar Series: FTA Bus Safety Program and SMS for Small Agencies

December 1, 2015

U.S. Department of TransportationFederal Transit Administration

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National RTAP 101 Webinar Series: FTA Bus Safety Program and SMS for Small Agencies

December 1, 2015

U.S. Department of TransportationFederal Transit Administration

Webinar Presenters:

Moderated by Joseph Powell

FTA’s Bus Safety Program Manager

Presentations by: Erik Larson and Ream Lazaro

Boyd, Caton & Grant Transportation Group, Inc (BCG).

National RTAP WebinarDecember 1, 2015

FTA Bus Safety Programand

Safety Management Systems

• Introductory remarks– Joseph Powell, FTA

• FTA Bus Safety Program Overview– Erik Larson, BCG

• Safety Management Systems (SMS)– Ream Lazaro, BCG

• Question and Answer period

Webinar Agenda

Slide 9

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.

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).

FTA Bus Safety Program Overview

Slide 12

• 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

FTA Bus Safety Program Background

Slide 13

• Safety and training resource website

• Voluntary onsite reviews

• Orientation seminars

• Ongoing outreach

Major Bus Program Elements

Voluntary Onsite

Reviews

State DOT Orientation

Seminars

Safety & Training

Resource Website

Industry Coordination

and Outreach

Slide 14

FTA SMS Framework

Resources

Training

Events

SMS Information

Blast emails to registered users

FTA’sSafety and Training Resource Website

http://safety.fta.dot.gov/

Slide 15

Safety Management Systems (SMS)

Slide 16

• 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

What FTA wants…from a safety perspective

Slide 17

• 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

What should change look like?

Slide 18

• 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?

Questions we need to ask that SMS helps answer

Slide 19

• Two critical safety related concerns that demonstrate the need for SMS:

– The Organizational Accident – Practical Drift

Critical Concerns

Slide 20

The Organizational Accident

Slide 21

• Individual accidents– those resulting from the actions or

inactions of people

• Organizational accidents– those resulting from actions or inactions

of organizations

Two Types of Accidents

Slide 22

“Organizational accidents have multiple causes involving many people operating at different levels of their respective companies.”

– James Reason, Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents

Organizational Accidents

Slide 23

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

Organizational Accident and SMS

Slide 24

Human Error

• Individuals do not cause organizational accidents

• Individuals trigger conditions leading to organizational accidents

• Organizational accidents have deeper and broader roots“The discovery of human

error should be considered the starting point of the investigation, not the ending point.” - ISASI Forum

Module 2 - Slide 20

Practical Drift

Slide 26

Practical Drift

System and Tasks as designed and engineered

Local Reality

Why? What happened?• Service delivery

pressures• Procedure no longer

practical• Short cuts are more

efficient• Supervisor allows it• Informal processes• Training

inadequately conveyed risk

“Work as imagined”

“Work as actually done”

“Uncoupling of practice from procedure”

Practice

Procedure

Over Time

Imperfect Systems – The Practical Drift

Start of Operations

Slide 27

Practical Drift

Operational Performance

Baseline Performance

Organization

The difference between “where we are” and “where we thought we were”

Slide 28

Navigating the Drift – The Need for Data

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.

Practical Drift and SMS

Slide 29

SMS Overview

Slide 30

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.

What is SMS?

Slide 31

1. Safety Management Policy

2. Safety Risk Management

3. Safety Assurance

4. Safety Promotion

SMS Framework Components

Slide 32

Safety Management Policy

Slide 33

Safety Management Policy Component

and its Subcomponents

Slide 34

SafetyManagement

Policy

• 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

Safety Management

Policy Statement

Safety Accountabilities

& Responsibilities

Integration with Public Safety &

Emergency Management

SMS Documentation

& Records

The Safety Management Policy Statement Subcomponent

Slide 35

SafetyManagement

Policy

• 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

Safety Management

Policy Statement

Safety Accountabilities

& Responsibilities

Integration with Public Safety &

Emergency Management

SMS Documentation

& Records

Safety Accountabilities & Responsibilities Subcomponent

Slide 36

SafetyManagement

Policy

• 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

Safety Management

Policy Statement

Safety Accountabilities

& Responsibilities

Integration with Public Safety &

Emergency Management

SMS Documentation

& Records

Integration with Public Safety & Emergency Management Subcomponent

Slide 37

SafetyManagement

Policy

• 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

Safety Management

Policy Statement

Safety Accountabilities

& Responsibilities

Integration with Public Safety &

Emergency Management

SMS Documentation

& Records

SMS Documentation & Records Subcomponent

Slide 38

SafetyManagement

Policy

• 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

Safety Management

Policy Statement

Safety Accountabilities

& Responsibilities

Integration with Public Safety &

Emergency Management

SMS Documentation

& Records

Safety Risk Management

Slide 39

SRM Component and its Subcomponents

Slide 40

• 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

Hazard Identification &

Analysis

Safety Risk Evaluation &

Mitigation

SafetyRisk

Management

Hazard Identification & Analysis Subcomponent

Slide 41

Hazard Identification &

Analysis

Safety Risk Evaluation and

Mitigation

SafetyRisk

Management

• 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

Safety Risk Evaluation & Mitigation Subcomponent

Slide 42

Safety Risk Evaluation and

Mitigation

SafetyRisk

Management

Hazard Identification &

Analysis

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

Safety Assurance

Slide 43

Safety Assurance Component and its Subcomponents

Slide 44

Safety performance monitoring & measurement

Managementof

change

Continuous improvement

SafetyAssurance

• 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

Safety Performance Monitoring & Measurement Subcomponent

Slide 45

Safety performance monitoring & measurement

Managementof

change

Continuous improvement

SafetyAssurance

• Safety management requires feedback on safety performance to complete the safety management cycle

• Safety performance monitoring and measurement provides that feedback

Management of Change Subcomponent

Slide 46

Safety performance monitoring & measurement

Managementof

change

Continuous improvement

SafetyAssurance

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

Continuous Improvement Subcomponent

Slide 47

Safety performance monitoring & measurement

Managementof

change

SafetyAssurance

Continuous improvement

• 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

Safety Promotion

Slide 48

Safety Promotion Component and its Subcomponents

Slide 49

SafetyPromotion

Competencies and Training

Safety Communication

Safety Communication Subcomponent

Slide 50

SafetyPromotion

Competencies and Training

Safety Communication

• 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

Competencies & Training Subcomponent

Slide 51

SafetyPromotion

Competencies and Training

Safety Communication

• Executive management responsibility because of allocation of resources to training

• Safety training development process• Relationship between safety training

and Safety Risk Management and Safety Assurance

Employee Safety Reporting

Slide 52

Slide 53

SMS and Safety Reporting: Facts

• SMS does not work without data• Nobody knows actual system performance

better than the employees delivering the service

• Power of safety reporting– Safety data capture on previously

unanticipated safety deficiencies– Safety data to confirm the effectiveness of

existing safety risk mitigations

Slide 54

Effective Safety Reporting - Attributes

• Training the messengers– People are not “natural messengers”

• Ease of reporting– Simple requisites

• Timely, accessible, and informative feedback– Feedback is motivational tool

• Protection– Information only used for the purposes it was

collected

• Vehicle for change– Issues reported are solved; validates employee

reporting

SMS at Small Bus Agencies

Slide 55

• High levels of communication• Culture of trust• Decision making process• Cross functional understanding of jobs• Ability to quickly make changes• Employee concern for passenger well-being• Limited accidents, incidents and safety

hazards• Scaled down implementation plan• FTA will provide guidance and templates

Small Bus Transit Agency Advantages

Slide 56

• Staff, time and resources• Enhanced documentation• Root cause analysis• Performance monitoring• Added training needs• Formalizing employee safety

reporting

Small Bus Transit Agency Challenges

Slide 57

Questions & Answers

Slide 58

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