Thursday, August 28, 2014

NTSB Seeks Public Comment On Reorganizing & Modernizing Investigation Procedures

As part of a larger modernization effort, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is seeking public comment on proposed changes to rules governing investigation procedures. The rules are laid out in 49 CFR Part 831.
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NTSB proposes organizing its investigation procedures into mode-specific subparts, in an effort to make the rules more accessible and easier to reference. Updates of terminology and procedures, including using the term event to describe transportation mishaps in regulatory text across all transportation modes, are also proposed.

Additional proposed changes include allowing the sharing of information between parties for the sake of timely safety improvements.

“The proposed language will allow parties to release information within party organizations as needed to implement prevention, remedial action, or as otherwise noted by the NTSB (e.g., in a safety bulletin to employees), in accordance with certain criteria,” the notice reads.

This proposed reorganization is a part of a larger NTSB review and modernization of its regulations.

Per NTSB, the public may submit comments via http://www.regulations.gov, Docket No. NTSB-GC-2012-0002, or via postal mail or fax, addressed to the NTSB Office of General Counsel. Comments should be submitted no later than Oct. 14, 2014.