Chief Investigator, Transport Safety

The Chief Investigator, Transport Safety is a statutory position established under Part 7 of the Transport Integration Act 2010.

The objective of the position is to seek to improve transport safety by providing for an independent no-blame investigation of transport safety matters consistent with the vision statement and the transport system objectives of the Act.

The Chief Investigator will now conduct rail investigations in Victoria under the Commonwealth Transport Safety Investigations Act 2003. This was agreed to by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) and then with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. Investigations under the Commonwealth Act started on 20 January 2013. The full intergovernmental agreement is available on the COAG website.

All other incidents will be investigated under Victorian legislation.  This includes marine, bus tram and Tourist and Heritage operations exempt from national rail safety accreditation.

Information on this page

• Transport Safety investigation reports
• Role of the Chief Investigator
• Memoranda of Understanding
• Contact details

Transport Safety investigation reports

The Chief Investigator prepares reports following investigations into major occurrences involving public transport and marine services. Further information about these investigations can be obtained in the reports below.

• Bus incidents
• Marine incidents
• Train incidents
• Tram incidents

Role of the Chief Investigator

The principal function of the Chief Investigator is to investigate transport safety matters and to report the results of investigations to the Minister for Public Transport or the Minister for Ports.

The primary focus of the investigations is to determine what factors caused the incident, rather than apportion blame for the incident, and to identify issues that may require review, monitoring or further consideration.

The Chief Investigator is not subject to the direction or control of the Minister(s) in performing or exercising his or her functions or powers however, the Minister(s) may direct the Chief Investigator to investigate a transport safety matter. The Chief Investigator is independent of the Department of Transport, Planning and Local Infrastructure and all other transport portfolio agencies.

An investigation conducted by the Chief Investigator does not replace the powers of regulatory bodies to conduct their own investigations into the same incident.

Memoranda of Understanding

The Chief Investigator has signed the following Memoranda of Understanding with other Government safety agencies.

The documents outline the respective roles and responsibilities of each party in relation to safety investigations.

• Public Transport Safety - signed 28 November 2006 (PDF, 53.9 KB, 12 pp.)
• Public Transport Safety - signed 28 November 2006 (DOC, 100.0 KB, 12 pp.)
  
• Marine Safety Victoria - signed 10 August 2007 (PDF, 35.4 KB, 6 pp.)
• Marine Safety Victoria - signed 10 August 2007 (DOC, 66.0 KB, 6 pp.)
  
• Victoria Police - signed 11 March 2008 (DOC, 83.0 KB, 11 pp.)
• Victoria Police - signed 11 March 2008 (PDF, 53.1 KB, 11 pp.)

Contact details