Safety & Security Time Series (Threshold Adjusted)

Change Effective August 2023: FTA has added three new columns to reflect Assaults on Transit Workers data collection which is a mandatory data collection effort described in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). The effort, which began in April 2023 introduces Assault on a Transit Worker as a new Major Event Type available to NTD reporters in Report Year (Calendar Year) 2023. Please consider the following regarding this update:

1. An Assault on a Transit Worker can be described as a circumstance in which a transit worker is assaulted (for a full definition, please see the NTD Glossary). Consequently, the three new columns provided in the "Events" section are not counts of injuries resulting from assault nor are they the total number of people assaulted. The Major Safety & Security Events dataset linked provides more detail for data users interested in approximating such aggregates. A data definition for each new column is provided within.
2. In years prior to 2023, counts of Assaults on Transit Workers can be derived with an estimated 99%+ accuracy using the Person Type of the injured party. Therefore, the data is populated in the file for 2008-2022 using this derivation. Data users should take caution that a very small number of events classified in the three new columns for events prior to April 2023 are not always Transit Worker Assaults, but rather "Assault Events Involving Transit Workers".
3. Because Non-Major Assaults on Transit Workers (not involving an injury) were not historically reported, they are excluded from this file (see table below).

Change Effective July 2023: FTA has added the column "UACE" which will, in future months, uniquely identify each Urban Area. This allows users to more easily filter to modes operating in a certain UZA regardless of when they operated. In future months, the UZA number previously provided will be replaced with this code.

Change Effective April 2023: The underlying database schema used to produce this file has changed. The specific impacts to the file are: 

1. Service Data fields used to produce event rates have been changed to use aggregates of calendar year data reported to the NTD on a monthly basis instead of fiscal year data reported on an annual basis. This is to align the reporting periods used in the file and allow for more precise calculation of rates (i.e., on the "Summary" tab).
2. Train Revenue Miles, Passenger Miles Traveled, and related metrics have been removed from the file. These fields are not collected on a monthly basis. Please note that this impacts the number of columns present in each of the tabs containing NTD data.

Adjustments for Historical Continuity

This time series combines Major and Non-Major event data reported to the NTD. It also makes the following adjustments to the scope of Safety & Security (S&S) events included in the file to prevent a large imbalance in event accounts that are due to changes in reporting thresholds.

For more information about current thresholds, see the most current S&S Quick Reference Guide from this page. 

Other Important Notes

• This file will be updated periodically by FTA to include data for subsequent months, and to incorporate revisions to prior months in the calendar year made by the transit properties. This may include revisions to data from the previous calendar year, especially in the first several months of each new calendar year, as CEO Certifications are ongoing. The Time Series counts injuries and fatalities associated with Suicide events in the Suicide column and recently updated the file to perform the same adjustment for Attempted Suicide events as well. These classifications are made to retain consistent data definitions from year to year and there are no net changes in total number of events, injuries or fatalities as a result.
• FTA is now releasing on a monthly basis the source datasets for this file for all events starting in 2014. This file provides a record for each Major and Non-Major Event reported to the NTD with some details about the event. Please find the datasets on the DOT Open Data Catalog website.
  • Major Safety & Security Events: https://data.transportation.gov/Public-Transit/Major-Safety-Events/9ivb-8ae9 
  • Non-Major Safety Events: https://data.transportation.gov/Public-Transit/Non-Major-Safety-Events/urir-txqm 
• From 2016-Present, the data available in the NTD regarding Suicides is more precise; people who are harmed in a suicide-related event but were not identified as the person attempting suicide are classified according to the reported Person Type (e.g., Passenger, Employee, etc.). In years before 2016, such individuals are counted as Suicide or Attempted Suicide injuries due to reporting requirements. Data users should consider this level of precision when using Suicide column data. 
• The NTD categorizes Non-Transit Collisions, events which do not involve transit vehicles, as Not Otherwise Classified (NOC) event type. The 2008-Most Current Year tabs do not include these events in the Collisions column and instead include these events in the respective NOC column. This results in a net decrease in collisions and an equal increase in NOC safety events compared to what was reported but does not affect total number of events, injuries or fatalities.

Keywords: non-major, major, event, collision, derailment, fire, security, noc, passenger, people waiting or leaving, bicyclist, pedestrian, in cross, not in crossing, operator, employee, other, vehicle occupant, other, trespasser, suicide, safety statistics, security statistics