Transport committee  Under our act, what's privileged are on-board recordings. Voice and video recordings are privileged and cannot be released except under certain very defined situations that are specified in our act. They usually have to be ordered by a court. Even then, they are subject to a confidentiality agreement.

Transport committee  It is clear that different measures must be taken when dealing with dangerous goods, but fatigue can manifest regardless of what the train is transporting. It is just that the consequences of an accident can be more significant when dangerous goods are involved. The TSB issued a number of recommendations following the Lac-Mégantic incident, and even prior to it, in order to mitigate the risks associated with transporting dangerous goods.

Transport committee  I don't know if one of my colleagues can point to a specific study. We have had voice recorders for years in aviation and for over 10 or 12 years in maritime. Without those recorders—and I can think of a number of accidents—we would not have known what had happened, particularly when the crew did not survive the accident or sometimes they may have survived but there may be discrepancies in their testimony or they simply don't remember everything that happened.

Transport committee  If we look at the statistics, even in Canada in aviation and marine, overall, there's been a decrease in the accident rate. I'm going to put you on the spot, Mr. Clitsome, and ask whether on the international side for aviation you have any demonstrable studies.

Transport committee  I'm not aware of any negative consequences, and we certainly haven't seen that in the aviation world, where voice recordings have been around for many years. I think after a while the fact that they're being recorded may just blend in with the scenery, so to speak. It may not be obvious to them over time.

Transport committee  Broadly speaking, those are the main causes. I can give you specific figures for human error. From January 1994 to August 2016, there were 223 accidents involving freight trains. In 94 or 42% of those accidents, the cause was human error. Other factors were involved in the remaining 58%.

Transport committee  Here is what I can tell you about accidents involving human factors. The board determined that about 20% of accidents involved fatigue. That is why, in October 2016, we put fatigue on our latest watchlist of key safety issues for freight train crews. That being said, whether or not an accident occurs, oftentimes video or voice recordings can reveal what the crew members were doing earlier and whether they had sent signals, whether they were talking and whether they were aware of signals they were receiving.

Transport committee  Fatigue is certainly among those factors. As I said, we put it on our watchlist of key safety issues. We have not issued any specific recommendations on that issue, but we have pointed out that it is a problem for freight train crews. Regulations already require railway companies to have fatigue management plans, but those do not always take fatigue science into account.

Transport committee  We have to know that a problem exists before we can resolve it. Recorders will help the TSB, railway companies and Transport Canada identify problems that may require other solutions that we have not yet considered because we were not aware of existing problems.

Transport committee  No, it's specific to leading locomotives on main track.

Transport committee  The equipment will be prescribed as part of the regulations. In broad terms, we're talking about locomotives operating on main tracks to distinguish from equipment that's operating in rail yards where they're marshalling trains and moving trains around. It's mainline track.

Transport committee  I'm going to ask Mr. Jang to answer. Some of these technical aspects were looked at in the context of the LVVR study we completed last year.

Transport committee  No.

Transport committee  There is the Railway Safety Act, the regulations that apply to railway companies, and a number of rules that have been developed by the industry and approved by Transport Canada. Each railway company has its own standard operating procedures as well. At this time, the only way to monitor for things that people might be doing that they shouldn't be doing would be through the efficiency testing that the railways currently conduct, where they would have a supervisor-trainer ride with the crew.

Transport committee  I will give you a general answer, and then I will ask Mr. Kirby Jang to respond. The fact is that the Transportation Safety Board of Canada conducted a class-4 safety study into the implementation of voice and video recorders. That study involved a number of stakeholders, including Transport Canada, a number of railway companies, and Teamsters Canada Rail Conference representatives.