Glossary of Terms
Accident: means an event that involves any of the following: a loss of life; a report of a serious injury to a person; a collision of transit vehicles; an evacuation for life safety reasons; at any location, at any time, whatever the cause.
Accountable Executive (typically the highest executive in the agency): means a single, identifiable person who has ultimate responsibility for carrying out the SMS of a public transportation agency, and control or direction over the human and capital resources needed to develop and maintain both the agency's PTASP, in accordance with 49 U.S.C. 5329(d), and the agency's TAM Plan in accordance with 49 U.S.C. 5326.
Agency Leadership and Executive Management: Those members of agency leadership or executive management (other than an Accountable Executive, CSO, or SMS Executive) who have authorities or responsibilities for the day-to-day implementation and operation of an agency's SMS.
Chief Safety Officer (CSO): means an adequately trained individual who has responsibility for safety and reports directly to a transit agency's chief executive officer, general manager, president, or equivalent officer. A CSO may not serve in other operational or maintenance capacity, unless the CSO is employed by a transit agency that is a small public transportation provider as defined in this part, or a public transportation provider that does not operate a rail fixed guideway public transportation system.
Corrective Maintenance: Specific, unscheduled maintenance typically performed to identify, isolate, and rectify a condition or fault so that the failed asset or asset component can be restored to a safe operational condition within the tolerances or limits established for in-service operations.
Equivalent Authority: means an entity that carries out duties similar to those of a Board of Directors, for a recipient or subrecipient of FTA funds under 49 U.S.C. Chapter 53, including sufficient authority to review and approve a recipient or subrecipient's PTASP.
Event: means an accident, incident, or occurrence.
Federal Transit Administration (FTA): means the Federal Transit Administration, an operating administration within the United States Department of Transportation.
Hazard: means any real or potential condition that can cause injury, illness, or death; damage to or loss of the facilities, equipment, rolling stock, or infrastructure of a public transportation system; or damage to the environment.
Incident: means an event that involves any of the following: a personal injury that is not a serious injury; one or more injuries requiring medical transport; or damage to facilities, equipment, rolling stock, or infrastructure that disrupts the operations of a transit agency.
Investigation: means the process of determining the causal and contributing factors of an accident, incident, or hazard, for the purpose of preventing recurrence and mitigating risk.
Key staff: means a group of staff or committees to support the Accountable Executive, CSO, or SMS Executive in developing, implementing, and operating the agency's SMS.
Major Mechanical Failures: means failures caused by vehicle malfunctions or subpar vehicle condition, which requires that the vehicle be pulled from service.
National Public Transportation Safety Plan (NSP): means the plan to improve the safety of all public transportation systems that receive Federal financial assistance under 49 U.S.C. Chapter 53.
Occurrence: means an event without any personal injury in which any damage to facilities, equipment, rolling stock, or infrastructure does not disrupt the operations of a transit agency.
Operator of a Public Transportation System: means a provider of public transportation as defined under 49 U.S.C. 5302(14).
Passenger: means a person, other than an operator, who is on board, boarding, or alighting from a vehicle on a public transportation system for the purpose of travel.
Performance Measure: means an expression based on a quantifiable indicator of performance or condition that is used to establish targets and to assess progress toward meeting the established targets.
Performance Target: means a quantifiable level of performance or condition, expressed as a value for the measure, to be achieved within a time period required by the FTA.
Preventative Maintenance: means regular, scheduled, and/or recurring maintenance of assets (equipment and facilities) as required by manufacturer or vendor requirements, typically for the purpose of maintaining assets in satisfactory operating condition. Preventive maintenance is conducted by providing for systematic inspection, detection, and correction of anticipated failures either before they occur or before they develop into major defects. Preventive maintenance is maintenance, including tests, measurements, adjustments, and parts replacement, performed specifically to prevent faults from occurring. The primary goal of preventative maintenance is to avoid or mitigate the consequences of failure of equipment.
Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan (PTASP): means the documented comprehensive agency safety plan for a transit agency that is required by 49 U.S.C. 5329 and this part.
Risk: means the composite of predicted severity and likelihood of the potential effect of a hazard.
Risk Mitigation: means a method or methods to eliminate or reduce the effects of hazards.
Road Calls: means specific, unscheduled maintenance requiring either the emergency repair or service of a piece of equipment in the field or the towing of the unit to the garage or shop.
Safety Assurance (SA): means the process within a transit agency's SMS that functions to ensure the implementation and effectiveness of safety risk mitigation and ensures that the transit agency meets or exceeds its safety objectives through the collection, analysis, and assessment of information.
Safety Management Policy (SMP): means a transit agency's documented commitment to safety, which defines the transit agency's safety objectives and the accountabilities and responsibilities of the agency's employees regarding safety.
Safety Management System (SMS): means the formal, top-down, data-driven, organization-wide approach to managing safety risk and assuring the effectiveness of a transit agency's safety risk mitigation. SMS includes systematic procedures, practices, and policies for managing risks and hazards.
Safety Management System (SMS) Executive: means a CSO or an equivalent.
Safety Objective: means a general goal or desired outcome related to safety.
Safety Performance: means an organization's safety effectiveness and efficiency, as defined by safety performance indicators and targets, measured against the organization's safety objectives.
Safety Performance Indicator: means a data-driven, quantifiable parameter used for monitoring and assessing safety performance.
Safety Performance Measure: means an expression based on a quantifiable indicator of performance or condition that is used to establish targets and to assess progress toward meeting the established targets.
Safety Performance Monitoring: means activities aimed at the quantification of an organization's safety effectiveness and efficiency during service delivery operations, through a combination of safety performance indicators and SPTs.
Safety Performance Target (SPT): means a quantifiable level of performance or condition, expressed as a value for a given performance measure, achieved over a specified timeframe related to safety management activities.
Safety Promotion (SP): means a combination of training and communication of safety information to support SMS as applied to the transit agency's public transportation system.
Safety Risk: means the assessed probability and severity of the potential consequence(s) of a hazard, using as a reference the worst foreseeable, but credible, outcome.
Safety Risk Assessment: means the formal activity whereby a transit agency determines SRM priorities by establishing the significance or value of its safety risks.
Safety Risk Management (SRM): means a process within a transit agency's Safety Plan for identifying hazards, assessing the hazards, and mitigating safety risk.
Safety Risk Mitigation: means the activities whereby a public transportation agency controls the probability or severity of the potential consequences of hazards.
Safety Risk Probability: means the likelihood that a consequence might occur, taking as reference the worst foreseeable, but credible, condition.
Safety Risk Severity: means the anticipated effects of a consequence, should the consequence materialize, taking as reference the worst foreseeable, but credible, condition.
Serious Injury: means any injury which:
- Requires hospitalization for more than 48 hours, commencing within seven days from the date that the injury was received;
- Results in a fracture of any bone (except simple fractures of fingers, toes, or nose);
- Causes severe hemorrhages, nerve, muscle, or tendon damage;
- Involves any internal organ; or
- Involves second- or third-degree burns, or any burns affecting more than 5 percent of the body surface.
Small Public Transportation Provider: means a recipient or subrecipient of Federal financial assistance under 49 U.S.C. 5307 that has one hundred (100) or fewer vehicles in peak revenue service and does not operate a rail fixed guideway public transportation system.
State: means a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Territories of Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Virgin Islands.
State of Good Repair: means the condition in which a capital asset is able to operate at a full level of performance.
State Safety Oversight Agency: means an agency established by a State that meets the requirements and performs the functions specified by 49 U.S.C. 5329(e) and the regulations set forth in 49 CFR part 674.
Transit Agency: means an operator of a public transportation system.
Transit Asset Management (TAM) Plan: means the strategic and systematic practice of procuring, operating, inspecting, maintaining, rehabilitating, and replacing transit capital assets to manage their performance, risks, and costs over their life cycles, for the purpose of providing safe, cost-effective, and reliable public transportation, as required by 49 U.S.C. 5326 and 49 CFR part 625.
Vehicle Revenue Miles (VRM): means the miles that vehicles are scheduled to or actually travel while in revenue service. Vehicle revenue miles include layover/recovery time and exclude deadhead, operator training, vehicle maintenance testing, and school bus and charter services.
