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Investigations by railway undertakings.
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53.—(1) It shall be a duty of a railway undertaking to carry out an investigation into a reportable railway incident in order to establish the cause of such incident and to assess what, if any, action can be taken by the railway undertaking to avoid railway incidents in the future or otherwise for the improvement of railway safety.
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(2) For the purposes of carrying out an investigation under subsection (1), a railway undertaking may interview any member of its staff or any other person engaged by it who, in the reasonable view of the undertaking, may be able to assist the undertaking in its investigations.
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(3) A person who is being interviewed under subsection (2) may, if he or she requests, be accompanied—
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(a) where the person is a member of the staff of the railway undertaking, by one other member of the staff,
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(b) where the person is a member of the staff of another person engaged by the undertaking, by one other member of that staff,
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(c) by one person from an organisation which represents, as the case may be, the staff of the undertaking or the person engaged by the undertaking, or
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(d) at his or her own expense, by a legal or other adviser.
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(4) A member of staff of a railway undertaking or any other person engaged by a railway undertaking shall, where requested by the railway undertaking to do so, provide all reasonable assistance and in particular any relevant information that may be known to him or her, to enable the railway undertaking to establish the cause or causes of the railway incident.
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(5) If a member of staff of, or other person engaged by, a railway undertaking objects to a question asked of him or her in accordance with subsection (4) on the grounds that the answer might tend to incriminate the person or make the person liable to a penalty and the person is informed of his or her obligation to answer the question, the person shall not refuse to answer the question but the answer given on that occasion shall not be admissible as evidence in criminal or other proceedings against the person other than proceedings against him or her in respect of the falsity of the answer or the failure to answer the question.
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(6) A railway undertaking shall in an expeditious manner carry out an investigation under subsection (1) and shall, as soon as practicable but in any event not later than 6 months after the date of the incident, prepare a report on its findings.
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(7) Where the railway undertaking is of the opinion that the report cannot be completed within the period specified in subsection (6), the railway undertaking shall notify the Commission together with its reasons for reaching such opinion and shall provide an indication of the revised period for the completion of the report.
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(8) The Commission may, where it deems it appropriate to do so, by notice in writing to a railway undertaking, request an interim report on an investigation under subsection (1) and a railway undertaking shall provide such interim report within such period as may be specified in the notice.
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(9) A report prepared under this section shall be in such form and contain such particulars as may, from time to time, be specified by the Commission but shall, in the case of a report under subsection (6), at minimum include full particulars of the incident, the cause or causes of same in so far as can be established and, where appropriate, recommendations to be adopted by the railway undertaking to prevent the occurrence of incidents or otherwise for the improvement of railway safety.
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(10) A report prepared under subsection (6), together with any relevant records gathered in the course of the investigation, shall be retained by a railway undertaking for a period of at least 5 years from the date of completion of the report and the report shall, unless otherwise notified in writing by the Commission in any particular case or any particular types of investigations, be provided to the Commission within 14 days of its completion.
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(11) Where a railway incident is investigated under this section and the incident involves more than one railway undertaking, each relevant undertaking shall co-operate in the provision of information and in the conduct of the respective investigations.
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(12) Where, during the course of an investigation under this section or after the completion of such investigation, the railway undertaking responsible for the investigation considers that the cause or likely cause of the incident may have—
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(a) implications for railway safety in general, or
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(b) in a particular case may have implications for the safe operation of another railway undertaking,
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the railway undertaking shall, at the earliest possible time, notify the Commission and, where appropriate, such other relevant railway undertaking of such cause or likely cause of the incident and any recommendations which may be adopted arising from the investigation.
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(13) Where the Commission receives a notification under subsection (12), it may take such action in relation to the dissemination of the information contained in the notification as it considers appropriate in the interests of railway safety.
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(14) Where the Commission considers it appropriate to do so, it may designate an inspector or other suitably qualified person to observe the carrying out of an investigation under this section and the railway undertaking shall facilitate such observation.
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(15) The function of an inspector or other person designated under subsection (14) shall be to assess the adequacy of the investigation and to ensure that the procedures adopted are in compliance with the safety case of the railway undertaking.
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(16) Where an inspector or other person designated under subsection (14) considers an investigation under this section not to be adequate, or not to be in compliance with the procedures adopted in the safety case of a railway undertaking, he or she shall, either during the investigation or after the completion of the investigation, notify the railway undertaking in writing of his or her considerations and the railway undertaking shall take all necessary actions to address the considerations.
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(17) A railway undertaking which fails to comply with a requirement of this section is guilty of an offence and is liable—
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(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding €3,000, or
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(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding €60,000.
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(18) A member of staff of, or other person engaged by, a railway undertaking who fails to comply with a requirement of subsection (4) or (5) is guilty of an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €3,000.
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