Evaluating Amtrak's S2S: Are Recorded Injury Rates Showing Actual Injury Rates?

2017Research Results: RR 17-09 August 2017PDFTech ReportRR 17-09Accident recordsAccident reportsEvaluationInjuriesSafetyAmtrakSafe-2-SaferSafety cultureSuppressionUnderreportingUnited StatesUnited States. Federal Railroad AdministrationCoplen, MichaelZuschlag, MichaelUnited States. Federal Railroad Administration. Office of Railroad Policy and DevelopmentJohn A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)Cook, SherrieLaRosa, RorySocket, ColleenVolpe National Transportation Systems Center, Technical Reference CenterSince 2009, Amtrak has been engaged in unprecedented efforts to advance its safety processes and improve the safety culture of the entire corporation, including establishing a peer-to-peer feedback process, known as the Safe-2-Safer program. FRA is conducting an evaluation of these efforts in order to provide lessons learned for other railroads pursuing large-scale safety culture change. While Amtrak's worker injury rates have risen since 2009, the FRA evaluation suggests this increase might be above actual injuries due to factors both related to and separate from efforts to improve safety culture. The data suggest that these factors have increased the proportion of injuries recorded by Amtrak. Underrecording of injuries is common in many companies, especially those with safety culture issues (see [1]). The distinction between actual and recorded injuries highlights both the promise and challenges of changing a safety culture