Transportation Safety Board
| Bureau de la sécurité des transports du Canada | |
TSB-BST logo
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 Place du Centre, the headquarters of the TSB |
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| Agency overview | |
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| Formed | March 29, 1990 |
| Preceding agency |
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| Jurisdiction | Government of Canada |
| Headquarters | Gatineau, Quebec |
| Employees | 220 |
| Agency executive |
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| Website | Transportation Safety Board website |
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB, French: Bureau de la sécurité des transports du Canada, BST), officially the Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board (French: Bureau canadien d’enquête sur les accidents de transport et de la sécurité des transports) is the agency of the Government of Canada responsible for advancing transportation safety in Canada. The independent agency investigates accidents and makes safety recommendations in four modes of transportation: aviation, rail, marine and pipelines.
Prior to 1990, Transport Canada's Aircraft Accident Investigation Branch (1960–1984) and Canadian Aviation Safety Board or CASB (1984–1990) was responsible for investigation of air incidents. Before 1990, investigation and actions were taken by Transport Canada and even after 1984 the findings from CASB were not binding for Transport Canada to respond to.
The TSB was created under the Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board Act, which was enacted on March 29, 1990. It was formed in response to a number of high-profile accidents, following which the Government of Canada identified the need for an independent, multi-modal investigation agency. The headquarters are located in Place du Centre in Gatineau, Quebec.
The provisions of the Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board Act were written to establish an independent relationship between the Board and the Government of Canada. This agency's first major test came with the crash of Swissair 111, on September 2, 1998, the largest single aviation accident on Canadian territory since the Arrow Air disaster. The TSB delivered its report on the accident on March 27, 2003, some 4½ years after the accident and at a cost of $57 million CAD, making it the most complex and costly accident investigation in Canadian history.
The Board is composed of 4 members:
The Transportation Safety Board's mandate is to:
The TSB may assist other transportation safety boards in their investigations. This may happen when:
TSB statistics report that Air, Rail, and Marine accident rates have been fairly steady over the past five years (2001–2006). (Pipeline accidents are not common enough for statistics to be relevant.) Traffic on the three major modes of transport has risen about 5% in the meantime. In the fiscal year 2005–2006, there were over 4,000 transportation "occurrences" reported in Canada. Most of these were minor incidents, involving only property damage, but major fatal accidents are also included in this total. In the same year, 79 accidents and incidents required TSB investigation.
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Wikipedia