Page 6 - Report of the railway accidents investigated in 2021

Annual report 2021
Corresponding laws and regulations have been established for conducting safety investigations in the areas of transport concentrated in the Safety Investigation Bureau on a sector-by-sector basis. Subsection 48 (2) of the Aviation Act provides additional conditions that give the Safety Investigation Bureau greater independence than the other structural units of the Ministry have. Unlike the directors of other structural units of the Ministry, the director of the ESIB is appointed and relieved of its duties by the Government of the Republic on the recommendation of the relevant minister. The director of the ESIB appoints the employees of the ESIB and relieves them of their duties as well as enters into and terminates the employment contracts with them. In addition, the budget of the Safety Investigation Bureau is independent and has been approved by the parliament – the Riigikogu of the Republic of Estonia which in the 2021 State Budget Act was provided with item code 20SE070004.
Section 48 of the Railways Act “Cases affecting railway safety” defines the concept of a serious accident, accident and incident and uses a common notion for them as cases affecting railway safety. The definitions are identical to those presented in Section 3 of the Directive 2016/798. In addition, it is required that the driver involved in a serious accident or accident is prohibited from consuming alcohol, narcotic, psychotropic or psychotoxic substances immediately after the occurrence. At the same time, the railway infrastructure company or owner is obliged to eliminate the consequences of the occurrence and restore railway traffic as soon as possible. Also, he must check the efficiency of the restoration works and, if necessary, implement measures to organise the works better. If necessary, the local government and the state must provide assistance for restoration. The right of the supervisory authority to process the relevance of the reasons for the time taken to restore railway traffic after a traffic interruption lasting more than 12 hours is also stipulated. Reference has been made to the obligation of the railway transport company to provide victim assistance in accordance with Regulation No. 1371/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
Pursuant to Section 49 of the Railways Act “Cases affecting railway safety” railway infrastructure managers or other railway infrastructure possessors and railway undertakings, as well as in the case of having been notified in the process of surveillance activities, the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority, immediately must notify the Safety Investigation Bureau of an occurrence affecting railway safety via means of public communication. The same Section also specifies submission of a written notification of an accident and a serious accident with clarified and verified facts within three working days. Additional information about an accident or serious accident is also provided verbally, immediately and in writing within three working days of receiving the information. Additional information for incidents is submitted as a report within three working days if the ESIB requests it. The obligation of the railway undertaking to take all necessary measures to find out
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