Rail safety occurrences reports – Category A occurrences
The Category A occurrence reports provide information on trends in rail safety data for Queensland on a monthly and annual basis. Both of these reports are based on data that is reported to Transport and Main Roads by accredited railways, in line with the Transport Infrastructure Act 1994. All data is sourced from the Rail Information System Queensland database.
These reports examine trends for Category A occurrences only.
A category A notifiable occurrence happens when an event is 1 or more of the following:
- an accident or incident that has caused significant property damage, serious injury or death
- a running line derailment
- a running line collision between rolling stock
- a collision at a railway crossing between rolling stock and either a road vehicle or a person
- a fire or explosion on or in rail infrastructure or rolling stock that affects the safe carrying out of the railway operations or has endangered 1 or more persons
- a terrorist attack or event suspected to be a terrorist attack
- an accident or incident involving an inadequacy in the safvety management system for the railway operators that could have caused significant property damage, serious injury or death
- another accident or incident that is likely to generate intense public interest or concern.
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What are rail safety occurrences?
A rail safety occurrence is any accident or incident that involves a train or rolling stock (or other event on railway premises), whether in motion or not, that affects the safety of persons, property or railway operations.
It includes:
- collision, derailment, fire, explosion, act of God, or other events
- slips, trips and falls on trains or railway infrastructure.
It doesn’t include:
- occurrences in repair shops, not involving a train in motion
- occurrences in railway offices that don’t directly affect the safe operation or movement of trains.
Occurrences are categorised by their severity – major or general.
A major occurrence is an unplanned, uncontrolled event that has either:
- resulted in, or is likely to result in, a fatality or serious injury or significant property damage
- under different circumstances, could have led to fatality or serious injury or significant property damage.
Major occurrences can be classified as 1 or more of the following types:
- an accident or incident that has caused significant property damage, serious injury or death
- a derailment on a railway line that is mainly used for the through-movement of trains
- a collision between rolling stock on a railway line that is mainly used for the through-movement of trains
- a collision at a railway crossing between rolling stock and a road vehicle or a person
- a fire or explosion on, or in, rail infrastructure or rolling stock that either:
- affects railway operations from being safely carried out
- has endangered a person, or people
- a terrorist attack or an act or event suspected to be a terrorist attack
- an accident or incident involving inadequate management of railway operation safety that could have caused significant property damage, serious injury or death
- another accident or incident that is likely to generate intense public interest or concern.
A general occurrence is:
- an unplanned, uncontrolled event that results in, or is likely to result in, harm to people, damage to property, loss to process, or an adverse impact to the environment
- an undesired, unplanned, uncontrolled event which under different circumstances could lead to an accident.
For more information on the categorisation of rail safety occurrences, view the
Guideline for the Top Event Classification of Notifiable Occurrences (PDF, 357 KB).
†The data contained in this report is subject to review and amendment as additional information becomes available or certain information requires revisiting following investigations. Typically a detailed investigation report takes between 60 to 90 days to complete, but in some cases this can be longer. This may result in occurrences being downgraded from major (Category A) to general (Category B), or being re-categorised. As such, data in this report may vary to data published in future reports or other publications.
