News release

Building on the preliminary statistics published in March 2020, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) today released its 2019 annual statistical summaries on transportation occurrences in the air, marine, pipeline, and rail sectors.

Air

Overall, the number of air accidents has been decreasing over the last decade. However in 2019, a total of 226 air accidents were reported to the TSB. This represents a 12% increase from the previous year’s total of 201 accidents, but is also 12% below the average of 258 reported in the prior 10 years from 2009–2018.

The 2019 overall air accident rate of 3.7 per 100 000 hours flown is above the 2018 rate of 3.3 accidents, but below the average rate of 4.9 accidents over the past 10 years. Additionally, the accident rate specifically for Canadian-registered aircraft has fallen from 6.3 accidents per 100 000 hours flown in 2009 to 3.7 in 2019, a reduction of 41%.

The TSB recorded 33 fatal air accidents in 2019 that resulted in 70 fatalities. This is a considerable increase from 2018, which saw 23 fatal accidents resulting in 38 fatalities, and is higher than the corresponding averages of 30 fatal accidents with 52 fatalities over the last 10 years (2009–2018).

Marine

In 2019, 267 marine accidents were reported to the TSB, a decrease from the 2018 total of 289 and below the 10-year (2009–2018) average of 298. The number of “shipping accidents” decreased to 207 from the last year’s 232. However, with 60 accidents reported, 2019 saw a slight increase in “accidents aboard ship” from the 57 reported in 2018.

Seventeen marine fatalities were reported, which is down from the 22 fatalities reported in 2018, but still above the annual average of 15.2 in the 2009–2018 time period. Twelve of the 17 marine fatalities in 2019 were fishing-related; and the data indicates that more needs to be done to improve safety in the commercial fishing industry, which has been on the TSB’s Watchlist since its inception in 2010.

Pipeline

In 2019, there were 48 pipeline transportation occurrences reported to the TSB, none of which were accidents. This number is below the average number of occurrences for the previous 10 years, which saw on average 132 occurrences.

Of the 48 reported occurrences, 20 involved a release of product. This level of product release is far lower than the average of 96 per year over the previous 10 years.

There were no accidents, serious injuries or fatalities arising directly from the operation of any federally-regulated pipeline in 2019. There have been no fatal accidents on a federally regulated pipeline system directly resulting from the operation of a pipeline since the inception of the TSB in 1990.

Rail

In 2019, 1246 rail accidents were reported to the TSB, up from the 2018 total of 1169, and a 17% increase from the previous 10-year (2009–2018) average of 1064.

The main-track accident rate in 2019 was 3.3 accidents per million main-track train miles, up from 2.6 in 2018 and 42% above the 10-year average of 2.3.

Rail fatalities totaled 72 in 2019, up from 57 reported last year and approximately the same as the previous 10-year average of 73. Crossing accident related fatalities totaled 28 in 2019, up from 19 in 2018 and trespasser fatalities totaled 38, up from 34 in the previous year. Five rail employees were fatally injured, which is above the 10-year average of 2 employee fatalities.