Transport committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon and thank you very much, Madam Chair and honourable members, for inviting the Transportation Safety Board of Canada to appear today so that we can answer your questions regarding Bill C-49. As you know, this bill introduces changes to the

Transport committee  That's correct. Under the draft legislation, there are a number of permitted uses beyond the uses by the Transportation Safety Board in the conduct of an investigation. In fact, we've provided you with a one-page fact sheet for ease of reference. It describes the permitted uses.

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

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, includi

Transport committee  In aviation, we have the International Civil Aviation Organization, which is the overarching organization to which Canada is a member, having signed the convention. On the maritime side, it is the International Maritime Organization. Both of those set overarching standards for s

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

Transport committee  No.

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 remain

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

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 companie

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  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

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