## Section 4 – Enhancement of Safety Measures in Transportation

Safety assurance is a basic and essential issue in transportation. One single accident may cause enormous damages and affect society greatly. Therefore, different kinds of measures are being taken in order to prevent accidents before they happen.

### 1. Construction and Improvement of Safety Management System in Public Transportation Organizations

In the first half of 2005, there were numerous accidents and problems caused by human error throughout public transportation organizations. Based on the “Act on the Partial Revision of the Railway Business Act, etc. for enhancement the transportation safety”, land, marine and air transportation business operators are obligated to draw out and submit “Safety Management Rules” as well as to assign and report “safety control managers”. Through taking these measures, the business operators are constructing safety management systems in a body from top management to actual transportation services, lead by top management. Moreover, the government is introducing transport safety management systems for performing the “Evaluation for Transport Safety Management Systems” that verifies the implementation progress according to the “Guidelines for Transport Safety Management Systems”. With reference to the recommended items stated in the management system of the international standard (ISO 9001) for quality management, the government evaluates the safety management systems constructed by top management under the principle of “safety is the first priority”. This system is for continuously improving measures on transportation safety by PDCA cycle as well as for working out further safety assurance of public transportation organizations by implementing the old safety inspection to interactive systems. From September 2008 to the end of August 2009, the evaluation for Transport Safety Management Systems was carried out on 832 companies in total (177 for railways, 151 for automobiles, 487 for marine transport, and 17 for airlines).

In FY 2009, the guidelines for small-size business operators were formulated in June for them to develop more effective safety management. Additionally, support was provided to business operators for the introduction and firm establishment of this system by formulating a “method for collection/utilization of accident/potentially serious error information (for automobiles and marine transport)” that states the risk management method and is being adopted by many business operators. Moreover, having summarized the result of evaluations performed so far after introduction of the system, measures relating to the transportation safety management taken by business operators have greatly changed. There has also been remarkable improvement especially in the enhancement of information delivery and communications within the company, the promotion of the collection/utilization of accident/potentially serious error information, and the enhancement of education/training. The effects brought by introducing this system are becoming clear. In order to maximize the effects of these measures, the enhancement of thorough information provision related to transportation safety was devised, including the renewal of an e-magazine named “Transport Safety”, the establishment of a transportation safety measures case site, and production of instructive case collection by using former cases of accidents.