Ron’s Rant #30 – A shout out to my friends down under!
The Rail Industry Safety and Standards Board has published new standards for public review and comment. When I started my quick review, I found some key wording in the new draft Standards that I liked.
- The Standards include Requirements that shall and recommendations that should be followed. It is a great approach as the world of rail crossing safety that is not well served by a black and white compliance regime like what we adopted in Canada.
- Six objectives of the Standards are clearly stated at the beginning.
- The word compliance is only found in one of the six objectives and the word risk is found in two of them.
- The standards include maintenance of the road crossing surface and have specific requirements for maintaining records of life expectancy of specific components.
- Use of Risk registers are embraced as well as maximum periods between assessments.
My favourite part of the document is that it includes a section outlining how new technology can be adopted/implemented. It is a 50-page document that is easy to follow and understand. I recommend that you have a quick read by following this link:
https://www.rissb.com.au/secure-download.php?filename=2020/04/AS-7658-Level-Crossings-PC2.pdf
If you have any questions or comments or want to identify safety concerns about railways, please send them along on LinkedIn or you can comment using the form on my website: RoadRailEng.com
Stay home and stay safe. Have a Safe Week! Safety for Life.