ESTA’s permanent Health and Safety Commission is to ask members whether they would be prepared to collect incident and safety data and share it with ESTA in the same way that accident data is used in the airline industry to improve safety.
The shared information – such as incident reports, statistics and experiences – would be collected by ESTA in its role an independent European body and used anonymously to develop benchmark safety best practices and processes which will be circulated to participating organisations.
In the airline industry, accident data is shared through a number of formal and informal channels.
For example, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) collects and shares safety data among EU member states and operates the European Co-ordination Centre for Accident and Incident Reporting Systems (ECCAIRS).
To encourage open reporting, sharing systems include legal protections for reporters, anonymization of data and a focus on learning lessons that will influence future policy and technical work, rather than punishment.
ESTA’s Health and Safety Commission is led by Section Transport President and Kässbohrer Executive Board Member Iffet Türken, and was created in 2023.
To date it has focussed on the need to harmonize safety rules and regulations across different European states and jurisdictions.
This latest move represents a broadening of its approach to include more practical tools and information that can directly support operating companies in their work to improve safety.
Türken said: “The Commission believes that ESTA can play an important role in this area as an independent organisation and we are keen to hear the opinions of members and operating companies.
“To that end we will be sending out a questionnaire to try and get a clear idea about our members’ attitudes towards sharing safety information with ESTA for the benefit of the industry as a whole.”
Alongside Iffet Türken, the ten-person Commission includes representatives from ASA France, BMS, Fagioli, Mammoet, Sarens, VVT and Wagenborg Nedlift plus ESTA Policy Officer Miguel Florez de la Colina.