UIC Safety Report 2021 - Significant Accidents 2020 - Public Report

Globally and for railway safety the year 2020 has been a strange year, due the the COVID-19 pandemic. Train and road traffic were considerably lower than in previous years due to the various lock downs. The expected lower numbers of significant accidents and fatalities per trainkilometer are only visible for level crossing accidents (-10%). In 2020 we did not experience major train collisions nor major derailments, resulting in the low number of passenger victims (59) ever observed. The perimeter of this report has been extended by five new infrastructure managers in three different countries.

Number of significant accidents

From 2006 till 2014 the annual number of significant accidents has decreased with around 25%. In the period of 2015-2018 we see a slow decrease from around 1900 to 1750 significant accidents per year. The number of significant accidents declared by established members in 2019 (1561) was lower than all previous years. Expected lower numbers in 2020 due to the pandemic is not recorded for the established members. The reasons behind this will need further investigation. In contrast the group of new members does show a lower number of significant accidents in 2020.

Number of fatalities (excepting Lithuania and Bulgaria)

In 2020 we recorded 2303 fatalities  The types of accidents the railway sector can influence most directly (train collisions, derailments, fires and shunting operations) show a decrease of 10 fatalities, mostly due to the absence of large scale train collisions and derailments, which is good news. On level crossings we see 10% less fatalities, probably due to less train-kilometers and road traffic. The number of fatalities related to individuals hit by train has increased +3%, which is contrary to lower number of train-kilometers.

UIC Safety Index (established members)

The UIC Safety Index is actually a weighted number of accidents, whereby passenger and staff victims and internal causes are weighted more heavily than trespasser victims and external causes. In addition, a higher number of victims is weighted more heavily than a lower number. After a plateau 2015-2017, we see a steady improvement in 2018-2019, but in 2020 the expected  lower index (due to the lower numbers of train-kilometers) is not there. In 2020, The relative safety index (safety index per train-kilometers) is worse than in 2019.