CSB Publishes Chemical Accident Reporting Data – 5-20-22

On Friday, the Chemical Safety Board (CSB), published a notice on their website that they were making available to the public their “Accidental Release Database” (.DOCX download link). It provides listings of incidents reported to the CSB under the requirements of 40 CFR 1604.3. According to the notice:

“The CSB’s Accidental Release Database includes all accidental release incidents reported since March 23, 2020, the effective date of the Accidental Release Reporting regulation. The database is revised quarterly and may include revisions or corrections to events previously reported and events that were not timely reported to the CSB in accordance with the regulation.”

The .DOCX spread sheet appears to be current through May 13^th, 2022 and contains 153 reported incidents. It notes that 24 of the incidents resulted in a (at least 1) fatality, 90 resulted in at least 1 serious injury, and 62 resulted in substantial property damage. Each entry includes a listing of:

• The incident date,

• Company name,

• City,

• State, and

• Listing of the incident reporting criteria noted above.

The incident reports made to CSB are required to include more information than provided in this database, but this is the information that the CSB is choosing to make public. 

OMB Approves NHTSA Emergency ICR for ADS Incident Reporting

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approved an emergency information collection request (ICR) for “Incident Reporting for Automated Driving Systems (ADS) and Level 2 Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS)”. This ICR is in support of a National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) plan to “issue a Standing General Order requiring manufacturers and operators of vehicles equipped with ADS or Level 2 ADAS to report crashes where the systems were engaged or in use immediately before the crash.”

According to the supporting document [DOCX download link] filed with OIRA, there will be two different types of reports required by the new Order, depending on the severity of the incident. NHTSA will require the first type of report for “any crash involving an ADS or Level 2 ADAS equipped vehicle that results in any individual being transported to a hospital for medical treatment, a fatality, a vehicle tow-away, or an air bag deployment or that involves a vulnerable road user” (pg 1). These type crashes will require a report within 1-day with a 10-day follow-up report using the same form.

The second type reporting will be required when a lesser severity crash occurs, but still involves “nonetheless involves personal injury or property damage” (pg 2). Manufacturers will be required to submit these reports to NHTSA on the 15^th of the month immediately following the accident, with a follow-up report the following month. Monthly submission would be required even if no accidents were reported.

Additionally, NHTSA included in the burden estimate (table 1, pg 11) entries for training requirements and setting up a MAP Account, the system NHTSA has for automotive manufacturers to report automotive defects and recalls.

The table below shows the burden estimate for this ICR. A single form [.PNG download link] will be used for each of the reports.

	Number of Responses	Number of Respondents	Hours per Response	Total Burden (hrs)
1-day Reports	3,410	30	2	6,820
10-day Follow-up	3,410	30	1	3,410
1-Month Reports	1,320	110	1.01	1,329
Training	20	20	40	800
MAP Account	85	85	2	170

There is one oddity in the narrative for this ICR, it refers to ‘manufacturers and operators’ in some place and just ‘manufacturers’ in others. We will have to see the General Order to make better sense of the issue.

One final item of interest; there is no mention of ‘cyber’, ‘cyberattack’ or ‘cybersecurity’ that I can find in any of the documentation associated with this ICR. I am not sure if that is due to short-sightedness on the part of NHTSA or whether it is a conscious decision to avoid that topic in the ICR. It could be addressed more specifically in the General Order.