The health and safety commission of the European association of abnormal road transport and mobile cranes (ESTA) is considering a system for members to log and share safety incidents, inspired by aviation’s accident reporting practices, in a bid to improve safety across the industry.
The shared data – including incident reports, statistics and experiences – would be collected by ESTA in its role as an independent European body and used anonymously to develop benchmark safety best practices and processes that will be distributed to participating organisations.
In the airline industry, accident data is shared via various formal and informal channels. For instance, the European Union Aviation System Agency (EASA) collects and shares safety data among EU member states and operates the European Coordination Centre for Accident and Incident Reporting Systems (ECCAIRS).
To encourage open reporting, sharing systems include legal protection for reporters, anonymisation of data as well as a focus on learning lessons that will influence future policy and technical work, instead of punishment.
Established in 2023, ESTA’s health and safety commission is led by section transport president and Kässbohrer executive board member Iffet Türken. She 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 Türken, the 10-person commission includes representatives from the likes of Fagioli, Mammoet, Sarens, Wagenborg, plus ESTA policy officer Miguel Florez de la Colina.
