USC 49 TRANSPORTATION
SUBTITLE 11 - OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES
CHAPTER 11 - NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD
SUBCHAPTER I - GENERAL
Section 2101 (17a) of title 46 and section 40102 (a) of this title apply to this chapter. In this chapter, the tem “accident” includes damage to or destruction of vehicles in surface or air transportation or pipelines, regardless of whether the initiating event is accidental or otherwise.
SUBCHAPTER II - ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATIVE
§1111. General organization
(a) Organization. - The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent establishment of the United States Government.
(b) Appointment of members.-The Board is composed of 5 members appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. Not more than 3 members may be appointed form the same political party. At least 3 members shall be appointed on the basis of technical qualification, professional standing, and demonstrated knowledge in accident reconstruction, safety engineering, human factors, transportation safety, or transportation regulation.
(c) Terms of office and removal. - The term of office of each member is 5 years. An individual appointed to fill a vacancy occurring before the expiration of the term for which the predecessor of that individual was appointed, is appointed for the remainder of that term. When the term of office of a member ends, the member may continue to serve until a successor is appointed and qualified. The President may remove a member for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.
(d) Chairman and Vice Chairman. - The President shall designate, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a Chairman of the Board. The President also shall designate a Vice Chairman of the Board. The terms of office of both the Chairman and Vice Chairman are 2 years When the Chairman is absent or unable to serve or when the position of Chairman is vacant, the Vice Chairman acts as Chairman.
(e) Duties and powers of Chairman. - The Chairman is the chief executive and administrative officer of the Board. Subject to the general policies and decisions of the Board, the Chairman shall-
(1) appoint, supervise, and fix the pay of officers and employees necessary to carry out this chapter;
(2) distribute business among the officers, employees, and administrative units of the Board; and
(3) supervise the expenditures of the Board.
(f) Quorum. - Three members of the board are a quorum in carrying out duties and powers of the Board.
(g) Offices, bureaus, and divisions. - The Board shall establish offices necessary to carry out this chapter, including an office to investigate and report on the safe transportation of hazardous material. The Board shall establish distinct and appropriately staffed bureaus, divisions, or offices to investigate and report on accidents involving each of the following modes of transportation:
(1) aviation.
(2) highway and motor vehicle.
(3) rail and tracked vehicle.
(4) pipeline.
(h) Chief financial officer. - The Chairman shall designate an officer or employee of the Board as the Chief Financial Officer. The Chief Financial Officer shall-
(1) report directly to the Chairman on financial management and budget execution;
(2) direct, manage, and provide policy guidance and oversight on financial management and property and inventory control; and
(3) review the fees, rents, and other charges imposed by the Board for services and things of value it provides, and suggest appropriate revisions to those charges to reflect costs incurred by the Board in providing those services and things of value.
(i) Seal. - The Board shall have a seal that shall be judicially recognized.
§1112. Special boards of inquiry on air transportation safety
(a) Establishment. - If an accident involves a substantial question about public safety in air transportation, the National Transportation Safety Board may establish a special board of inquiry composed of-
(1) one member of the Board acting as chairman; and
(2) 2 members representing the public, appointed by the President on notification of the establishment of the special board of inquiry.
(b) Qualifications and conflicts of interest. - The public members of a special board of inquiry must be qualified by training and experience to participate in the inquiry and may not have a pecuniary interest in an aviation enterprise involved in the accident to be investigated.
(c) Authority. - A special board of inquiry has the same authority that the Board has under this chapter.
(a) General authority.-
(1) The National Transportation Safety Board, and when authorized by it, a member of the Board, an administrative law judge employed by or assigned to the Board, or an officer or employee designated by the Chairman of the Board, may conduct hearings to carry out this chapter, administer oaths, and require, by subpena or otherwise, necessary witnesses and evidence.
(2) A witness or evidence in a hearing under paragraph (1) of this subsection may be summoned or required to be produced from any place in the United States to the designated place of the hearing. A witness summoned under this subsection is entitled to the same fee and mileage the witness would have been paid in a court of the United States.
(3) A subpena shall be issued under the signature of the Chairman or the Chairman's delegate but may be served by any person designated by the Chairman.
(4) If a person disobeys a subpena, order, or inspection notice of the Board, the Board may bring a civil action in a district court of the United States to enforce the subpena, order, or notice. An action under this paragraph may be brought in the judicial district in which the person against whom the action is brought resides, is found, or does business. The court may punish a failure to obey an order of the court to comply with the subpena, order, or notice as a contempt of court.
(b) Additional powers.
(A) procure the temporary or intermittent services of experts or consultants under section 3109 of title 5;
(B) make agreements and other transactions necessary to carry out this chapter without regard to section 3709 of the Revised Statutes (41 U.S.C. 5);
(C) use, when appropriate, available services, equipment, personnel, and facilities of a department, agency, or instrumentality of the United States Government on a reimbursable or other basis;
(D) confer with employees and use services, records, and facilities of State and local governmental authorities;
(E) appoint advisory committees composed of qualified private citizens and officials of the Government and State and local governments as appropriate;
(F) accept voluntary and uncompensated services notwithstanding another law;
(G) accept gifts of money and other property;
(H) make contracts with nonprofit entities to carry out studies related to duties and powers of the Board; and
(I) negotiate and enter into agreements with individuals and private entities and departments, agencies, and instrumentalities of the Government, State and local governments, and governments of foreign countries for the provision of facilities, accident-related and technical services or training in accident investigation theory and techniques, and require that such entities provide appropriate consideration for the reasonable costs of any facilities, goods, services, or training provided by the Board.
(2) The Board shall deposit in the Treasury amounts received under paragraph (1) (I) of this subsection to be credited as offsetting collections to the appropriation of the Board. The Board shall maintain an annual record of collections received under paragraph (1) (I) of this subsection.
(c) Submission of certain copies to Congress. - When the Board submits to the President or the Director of the Office of Management and Budget a budget estimate, budget request, supplemental budget estimate, other budget information, a legislative recommendation, prepared testimony for congressional hearings, or comments on legislation, the Board must submit a copy to Congress at the same time. An officer, department, agency, or instrumentality of the Government may not require the Board to submit the estimates, request, information, recommendation, testimony, or comments to another officer, department, agency, or instrumentality of the Government for approval, comment, or review before being submitted to Congress.
(d) Liaison committees. - The Chairman may determine the number of committees that are appropriate to maintain effective liaison with other departments, agencies, and instrumentalities of the Government, State and local governmental authorities, and independent standard-setting authorities that carry out programs and activities related to transportation safety. The Board may designate representatives to serve on or assist those committees.
(e) Inquiries. - The Board, or an officer or employee of the Board designated by the Chairman, may conduct an inquiry to obtain information related to transportation safety after publishing notice of the inquiry in the Federal Register. The Board or designated officer or employee may require by order a department, agency, or instrumentality of the Government, a State or local governmental authority, or a person transporting individuals or property in commerce to submit to the Board a written report and answers to requests and questions related to a duty or power of the Board. The Board may prescribe the time within which the report and answers must be given to the Board or to the designated officer or employee. Copies of the report and answers shall be made available for public inspection.
(f) Regulations. - The Board may prescribe regulations to carry out this chapter.
(g) Overtime pay.-
(1) In general. - Subject to the requirements of this section and notwithstanding paragraphs (1) and (2) of section 5542 (a) of title 5, for an employee of the Board whose basic pay is at a rate which equals or exceeds the minimum rate of basic pay for GS-10 of the General Schedule, the Board may establish an overtime hourly rate of pay for the employee with respect to work performed at the scene of an accident (including travel to or from the scene) and other work that is critical to an accident investigation in an amount equal to one and one-half times then hourly rate of basic pay of the employee. All of such amount shall be considered to be premium pay.
(2) Limitation on overtime pay to an employee. - An employee of the Board may not receive overtime pay under paragraph (1), for work performed in a calendar year, in an amount that exceeds 15 percent of the annual rate of basic pay of the employee for such calendar year.
(3) Limitation on total amount of overtime pay. - The Board may not make overtime payments under paragraph (1) for work performed in any fiscal year in a total amount that exceeds 1.5 percent of the amount appropriated to carry out this chapter for that fiscal year.
(4) Basic pay defined. - In this subsection, the term 'basic pay' includes any applicable locality-based comparability payment under section 5304 of title 5 (or similar provision of law) and any special rate of pay under section 5305 of title 5 (or similar provision of law).
(5) Annual report. - Not later than January 31, 2002, and annually thereafter, the Board shall transmit to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee a report identifying the total amount of overtime payments made under this subsection in the preceding fiscal year, and the number of employees whose overtime pay under this subsection was limited in that fiscal year as a result of the 15 percent limit established by paragraph (2).
§1114. Disclosure, availability, and use of information
(a) General. - Except as provided in subsections (b), (c), (d), and (f) of this section, a copy of a record, information, or investigation submitted or received by the National Transportation Safety Board, or a member or employee of the Board, shall be made available to the public on identifiable request and at reasonable cost. This subsection does not require the release of information described by section 552 (b) of title 5 or protected from disclosure by another law of the United States.
(2) The Board shall deposit in the Treasury amounts received under paragraph (1) to be credited to the appropriation of the Board as offsetting collections.
(1) The Board may disclose information related to a trade secret referred to in section 1905 of title 18 only -
(A) to another department, agency, or instrumentality of the United States Government when requested for official use;
(B) to a committee of Congress having jurisdiction over the subject matter to which the information is related, when requested by that committee;
(C) in a judicial proceeding under a court order that preserves the confidentiality of the information without impairing the proceeding; and
(D) to the public to protect health and safety after giving notice to any interested person to whom the information is related and an opportunity for that person to comment in writing, or orally in closed session, on the proposed disclosure, if the delay resulting from notice and opportunity for comment would not be detrimental to health and safety.
(2) Information disclosed under paragraph (1) of this subsection may be disclosed only in a way designed to preserve its confidentiality.
(A) if the Board holds a public hearing on the accident or incident, at the time of the hearing; or
(B) if the Board does not hold a public hearing, at the time a majority of the other factual reports on the accident or incident are placed in the public docket.
(3) Protection of voluntary submission of information. -
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, neither the Board, nor any agency receiving information from the Board, shall disclose voluntarily provided safety-related information if that information is not related to the exercise of the Board's accident or incident investigation authority under this chapter and if the Board finds that the disclosure of the information would inhibit the voluntary provision of that type of information.
(c) Cockpit recordings and transcripts. -
(1) The Board may not disclose publicly any part of a cockpit voice or video recorder recording or transcript of oral communications by and between flight crew members and ground stations related to an accident or incident investigated by the Board. However, the Board shall make public any part of a transcript or any written depiction of visual information the Board decides is relevant to the accident or incident -
(2) This subsection does not prevent the Board from referring at any time to cockpit voice or video recorder information in making safety recommendations.
(d) Surface vehicle recordings and transcripts. -
(1) Confidentiality of recordings. - The Board may not disclose publicly any part of a surface vehicle voice or video recorder recording or transcript of oral communications by or among drivers, train employees, or other operating employees responsible for the movement and direction of the vehicle or vessel, or between such operating employees and company communication centers, related to an accident investigated by the Board. However, the Board shall make public any part of a transcript or any written depiction of visual information that the Board decides is relevant to the accident -
(A) if the Board holds a public hearing on the accident, at the time of the hearing; or
(B) if the Board does not hold a public hearing, at the time a majority of the other factual reports on the accident are placed in the public docket.
(2) References to information in making safety recommendations. -This subsection does not prevent the Board from referring at any time to voice or video recorder information in making safety recommendations.
(e) Drug tests. -
(1) Notwithstanding section 503 (e) of the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1987 (Public Law 100-71, 101 Stat. 471), the Secretary of Transportation shall provide the following information to the Board when requested in writing by the Board:
(A) any report of a confirmed positive toxicological test, verified as positive by a medical review officer, conducted on an officer or employee of the Department of Transportation under post-accident, unsafe practice, or reasonable suspicion toxicological testing requirements of the Department, when the officer or employee is reasonably associated with the circumstances of an accident or incident under the investigative jurisdiction of the Board.
(B) any laboratory record documenting that the test is confirmed positive.
(2) Except as provided by paragraph (3) of this subsection, the Board shall maintain the confidentiality of, and exempt from disclosure under section 552 (b) (3) of title 5 -
(A) a laboratory record provided the Board under paragraph (1) of this subsection that reveals medical use of a drug allowed under applicable regulations; and
(B) medical information provided by the tested officer or employee related to the test or a review of the test.
(3) The Board may use a laboratory record made available under paragraph (1) of this subsection to develop an evidentiary record in an investigation of an accident or incident if -
(A) the fitness of the tested officer or employee is at issue in the investigation; and
(B) the use of that record is necessary to develop the evidentiary record.
(f) Foreign investigations. -
(1) In general. - Notwithstanding any other provision of law, neither the Board, nor any agency receiving information from the Board, shall disclose records or information relating to its participation in foreign aircraft accident investigations; except that -
(A) the Board shall release records pertaining to such an investigation when the country conducting the investigation issue its final report or 2 years following the date of the accident, whichever occurs first; and
(B) the Board may disclose records and information when authorized to do so by the country conducting the investigation.
(2) Safety recommendations. - Nothing in this subsection shall restrict the Board at any time from referring to foreign accident investigation information in making safety recommendations.
§1115. Training
(a) Definition. - In this section, “Institute” means the Transportation Safety Institute of the Department of Transportation and any successor organization of the Institute.
(b) Use of Institute services. - The National Transportation Safety Board may use, on a reimbursable basis, the services of the Institute. The Secretary of Transportation shall make the Institute available to -
(1) the Board for safety training of employees of the Board in carrying out their duties and powers; and
(2) other safety personnel of the United States Government, State and local governments, governments of foreign countries, interstate authorities, and private organizations the Board designates in consultation with the Secretary.
(c) Fees. -
(1) Training at the Institute for safety personnel (except employees of the Government) shall be provided at a reasonable fee established periodically by the Board in consultation with the Secretary. The fee shall be paid directly to the Secretary, and the Secretary shall deposit the fee in the Treasury. The amount of the fee -
(A) shall be credited to the appropriate appropriation (subject to the requirements of any annual appropriation); and
(B) is an offset against any annual reimbursement agreement between the Board and the Secretary to cover all reasonable costs of providing training under this subsection that the Secretary incurs in operating the Institute.
(2) The Board shall maintain an annual record of offsets under paragraph (1) (B) of this subsection.
(d) Training of Board employees and others. - The Board may conduct training of its employees in those subjects necessary for the proper performance of accident investigation. The Board may also authorize attendance at courses given under this subsection by other government personnel, personnel of foreign governments, and personnel from industry or otherwise who have a requirement for accident investigation training. The Board may require non-Board personnel to reimburse some or all of the training costs, and amounts so reimbursed shall be credited to the appropriation of the Board as offsetting collections.
§1116. Reports and studies
(a) Periodic reports. - The National Transportation Safety Board shall report periodically to Congress, departments, agencies, and instrumentalities of the United States Government and State and local governmental authorities concerned with transportation safety, and other interested persons. The report shall -
(1) advocate meaningful responses to reduce the likelihood of transportation accidents similar to those investigated by the Board; and
(2) propose corrective action to make the transportation of individuals as safe and free from risk of injury as possible, including action to minimize personal injuries that occur in transportation accidents.
(1) carry out special studies and investigations about transportation safety, including avoiding personal injury;
(2) examine techniques and methods of accident investigation and periodically publish recommended procedures for accident investigations;
(3) prescribe requirements for persons reporting accidents and aviation incidents that -
(A) may be investigated by the Board under this chapter; or
(B) involve public aircraft (except aircraft of the armed forces and the intelligence agencies);
(4) evaluate, examine the effectiveness of, and publish the findings of the Board about the transportation safety consciousness of other departments, agencies, and instrumentalities of the Government and their effectiveness in preventing accidents; and
(5) evaluate the adequacy of safeguards and procedures for the transportation of hazardous material and the performance of other departments, agencies, and instrumentalities of the Government responsible for the safe transportation of that material.
§1117. Annual report
The National Transportation Safety Board shall submit a report to Congress on July 1 of each year. The report shall include -
(1) a statistical and analytical summary of the transportation accident investigations conducted and reviewed by the Board during the prior calendar year;
(2) a survey and summary of the recommendations made by the Board to reduce the likelihood of recurrence of those accidents together with the observed response to each recommendation; and
(3) a detailed appraisal of the accident investigation and accident prevention activities of other departments, agencies, and instrumentalities of the United States Government and State and local governmental authorities having responsibility for those activities under a law of the United States or a State.
§1118. Authorization of appropriations
(a) In general. - There are authorized to be appropriated for the purposes of this chapter $57,000,000 for fiscal year 2000, $65,000,000 for fiscal year 2001, and $72,000,000 for fiscal year 2002, such sums to remain available until expended.
(b) Emergency fund. - The Board has an emergency fund of $2,000,000 available for necessary expenses of the Board, not otherwise provided for, for accident investigations. Amounts equal to the amounts expended annually out of the fund are authorized to be appropriated to the emergency fund.
§1119. Accident and safety data classification and publication
(a) In general. - Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this section, the National Transportation Safety Board shall, in consultation and coordination with the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, develop a system for classifying air carrier accident data maintained by the Board.
(b) Requirements for classification system. -
(1) In general. - The system developed under this section shall provide for the classification of accident and safety data in a manner that, in comparison to the system in effect on the date of the enactment of the section, provides for safety-related categories that provide clearer descriptions of accidents associated with air transportation, including a more refined classification of accidents which involve fatalities, injuries, or substantial damage and which are only related to the operation of an aircraft.
(2) Public comment. - In developing a system of classification under paragraph (1), the Board shall provide adequate opportunity for public review and comment.
(3) Final classification. - After providing for public review and comment, and after consulting with the Administrator, the Board shall issue final classifications. The Board shall ensure that air travel accident covered under this section is classified in accordance with the final classifications issued under this section for data for calendar year 1997, and for each subsequent calendar year.
(4) Publication. - The Board shall publish on a periodic basis accident and safety data in accordance with the final classifications issued under paragraph (3).
(5) Recommendations of the Administrator. - The Administrator may, from time to time, request the Board to consider revisions (including additions to the classification system developed under this section). The Board shall respond to any request made by the Administrator under this section not later than 90 days after receiving that request.
