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Confidential Close Call Reporting System
MacroSys has supported the Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ (BTS’) Confidential Close Call Reporting program from its inception in 2006. The program improves safety culture and practices in transportation and related industries by studying close calls reported voluntarily and confidentially by employees. Our team collects and analyzes close call data to identify potential hazards, understand the root causes of unsafe events or conditions, and develop corrective actions or countermeasures.
In supporting this multi-year, multi-million dollar contract, our staff have performed a wide range of tasks and have applied expertise and skills in areas such as:
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Railroad and transportation operations;
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Safety analysis and human factors research;
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Survey methodology, data collection, processing, and analysis;
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Technical writing and report generation;
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Interview conduction and support;
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Web application design, development, and deployment;
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Database development and management; and
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IT security and confidentiality policy, requirements, procedures, and techniques.
Our rail safety experts, who have decades of experience working in the railroad industry, cover every aspect of the program, including planning projects, conducting incident interviews, compiling the data, and drafting analysis reports. Our survey support staff design and produce evaluation questionnaires that ensure maximum usability, response rate and reliable responses, automated scoring, and unique respondent codes. Our transportation and data analysts work closely with BTS staff to determine best procedures for data collection, data processing, data analysis, and data dissemination. They perform exploratory data analyses and other statistical analyses to help inform the reports drafted by our rail experts. Our team of IT experts use cross-cutting technology and tools to design, develop, and deploy the Close Call Data System, which is a robust, comprehensive, modern multi-technology, multi-platform IT system that supports the entire operations of the program. They also implemented IT security plans for implementing, verifying, and maintaining security controls across all IT systems and tools. Finally, our designers and technical writers coordinate with the technical experts to write standard operating procedures, edit and refine analysis reports, and develop outreach materials to raise awareness for the program.
The C3RS program has served as the pilot program in this safety effort, which has since been expanded to include the WMATA Close Call Reporting System, which collects close call data for rail and bus transit operations, and the SafeOCS Near-Miss Reporting System, which collects close call data for offshore oil and gas operations. Our team has supported all of these efforts since their inception. Through the work performed for the C3RS project, our team’s efforts have greatly helped improve railroad safety through the implementation of proactive corrective measures. Our team continues to provide ongoing assessment and recommendations for improving the effectiveness of the C3RS program and the systems used to support it.
Due to MacroSys’ success with the C3RS program, it has since expanded from a pilot program with freight railroads to a full-fledged multi-industry program, including the WMATA Close Call Reporting System, which collects close call data for rail and bus transit operations, and the SafeOCS Near-Miss Reporting System, which collects close call data for offshore oil and gas operations. Our team’s efforts continue to greatly improve safety through the implementation of proactive corrective measures.