The power in your safety data
Explore just how far your safety event reports go.
Jasmin CollierEditorial Content Manager, RSSB
You’re no stranger to how rail operators share data through our Safety Management Intelligence System (SMIS). You know it’s industry’s online safety event reporting and business intelligence software. But what you might not know is just how far your data goes—and how many of our tools it informs.
The thousands of entries that organisations have added to SMIS are one reason GB has one of the safest rail networks in the world. And we’re making it easier for you to share and analyse safety data, with work under way to replace the current SMIS solution with a new Safe Insights platform.
SMIS data feeds directly into the Safety Risk Model and the Precursor Indicator Model (PIM). The PIM helps us track the underlying risk of train accidents.
By providing an overview of the main elements of train accident risk and weighting them to reflect their relative contribution, the PIM helps industry track trends in accident precursors. Having this information enables us to collectively identify emerging concerns and understand their impact on system risk.
We also use insights from SMIS to create our regular health and safety reports. That will continue to be the case with the Safe Insights platform. These insights help direct strategic safety initiatives. In addition, the events logged in SMIS feed into our business cases for research and changes to standards.
SMIS information is also central to the conversations had by the cross-industry risk groups we facilitate. Those groups lead projects to enhance safety across the rail sector. And it’s only by accessing your quality data that we can make sure we’re focusing scarce industry resources where they’re most needed and tracking the impact of these projects.
Are you after something a bit more tailored to your organisation?
We’re improving how members like you can interrogate and analyse SMIS—and soon, Safe Insights—data. We’re working with you to move safety reporting to Power BI. We’re also creating guidance and will be hosting live training sessions so that you can unlock more value from this shared resource.
We’ve also created a number of area-specific data hubs and dashboards to keep you informed of safety and risk patterns over time.
We’ve created a suite of benchmarking dashboards specifically for train operating companies (TOCs). Built using SMIS data and containing 34 safety key performance indicators (KPIs), these dashboards allow TOCs to monitor and share safety data.
The KPIs include workforce, passenger, and public injuries, as well as signals passed at danger, overruns, train protection warning system activations, and more. There are plenty of insights to be gleaned from these dashboards.
To get access to these PowerBI dashboards, please contact us.
The dedicated safety data hub for freight allows you to dig into 12 KPIs, including derailments, collisions, and loading incidents. This information is providing valuable insights to the National Freight Safety Group, among others, who are actively driving improvements in freight sector health and safety.
To see our full profile of this tool, head to the July issue.
We monitor level crossing data to facilitate a better understanding of the risks these crossings present. Our Level Crossing Data Hub collates information from across the network to help you drill into the detail of level crossing incidents.
The hub features nine KPIs, including road vehicle strikes, pedestrian near misses, and infrastructure failures. It also has a range of custom filtering options. These insights support improved risk management at these locations.
SMIS has been a cornerstone for rail’s safety and risk management for many years. It provides a wealth of trusted data that underpins various strategic initiatives. From informing the Safety Risk Model and PIM to guiding cross-industry risk group discussions, it’s integral to driving safety enhancements across the GB network.
We’re continuing to make it easier and quicker to share data and get value from this rich industry resource. In May, we concluded major work to simplify the SMIS data model. This has already saved our members many hours of effort. It also provides a solid foundation to build the new Safe Insights platform, which will replace the current SMIS solution later this year.
Our development team is working with an industry focus group to design Safe Insights around the user experience. The new platform will use artificial intelligence to speed up the input process, improve data quality, and generate new insights.
So, what could you do with these insights?
See our Risk and Safety Intelligence Catalogue for more on our products and services.
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