Safety recommendations in the transportation industry are the engines that drive needed changes.

When an accident or an incident occurs, the resulting investigation will attempt to find out what happened and why. But that should only be one step in the process to implement changes so that a similar accident or incident does not occur. The recommendations that are generated as a result of any investigation are the most important products that come from any investigation. They are the fruits of your labor. The recommendations provide a game plan for addressing the safety deficiencies found during an investigation. When safety recommendations are widely disseminated and implemented, safety will actually improve.

Not only will this course cover recommendations that result from investigations conducted by official government accident investigation agencies (such as the NTSB in the U.S.), it will also cover recommendations that come from incident and accident investigations conducted by government regulatory agencies (such as the FAA) and by industry investigators (such as airlines or airplane manufacturers) reviewing problems in their own operations and procedures. In this sense safety recommendations can be looked upon as the most important accident prevention tool.

This course will cover all aspects of developing and responding to safety recommendations. Students will learn how to identify safety problems that need correcting, and when to make recommendations. Some safety problems uncovered during an investigation require urgent consideration and immediate action to avoid a similar accident, while others can wait for the completion of the investigation. The course will cover the role of parties in recommendation development and look at the process from the perspective of the eventual recipient of the recommendations.

Various types of recommendations will be discussed. This course will demonstrate how to select the recipient of a recommendation; how to work as a team to develop recommendations; what makes a good recommendation, and how to “sell” your recommendations to those who must approve them and those who must decide whether to implement them.

One key topic in the course will be how to track and follow up on recommendations to ensure they are implemented. In other words, students will learn how to avoid creating recommendations destined to only gather dust on someone’s shelf or bottom desk drawer.

Actual cases will be discussed, which will allow students to improve their skills in developing, presenting and justifying recommendations. Importantly, the course will also teach students how to respond to recommendations.

This course is intended for anyone who is, or may become involved in accident investigation, accident prevention and safety improvement. Individuals working for government accident investigation agencies, government regulatory agencies, in military aviation, in commercial and corporate airline operations and for airplane manufacturers will benefit from this course.

• You will become familiar with the entire safety recommendation process and how recommendations can be used to prevent accidents and improve safety
• You will learn how to develop, convince, followup and track responses to internal and external recommendations
• You will learn what makes a good recommendation, what pitfalls to avoid and when to make a recommendation
• You will learn how to select the best recipient of your recommendation
• You will learn how to write your recommendation so it will be fully understood by those organizations that must act on it and those who can influence its adoption
• You will learn, as a recipient of a recommendation, how to evaluate it and the alternatives available to solve the safety problem identified and how best to respond to a recommendation
• This course is accepted by the Board of Certified Safety Professionals for Continuance of Certification credit.
• SCSI will award 3.6 CEUs to each participant who successfully completes this course.

• What makes a good recommendation

Is it cost effective?

Is it feasible?

Is it doable?

Does it meet the common sense test?

Does it hit the target?

• Identifying safety problems that should be remedied
• What are the options to fix the identified problem?
• Who should receive the recommendation?
• Is there more than one party that can solve the identified problem?
• How to identify potential recipients of the recommendation
• When to make recommendations

Whenever a safety problem is identified

As part of the final report

• Types of recommendations

General or specific

Urgent or routine

• The process of developing recommendations
• Who should participate?
• What justification is required?
• How will the recommendation be perceived?
• Recommendation data bases
• Tracking progress on implementation
• How to sell your recommendation
• Who should receive copies of the recommendation?
• How to respond to recommendations
• Is it necessary to adopt all recommendations?
• Explore alternative means to address recommendations
• Follow-up plan (documentation)
• Risk analysis/ Cost analysis
• International concerns (ICAO)
• Format: Standardization, user friendly
• The five basic questions to initiate and develop a safety recommendation
• * What is the criteria used in justifying a recommendation
• * The resistors to change
• * Risk analysis/ Cost analysis
• * Objectivity
• * Regulatory oversight
• Tombstone mentality
• Writing ability
• Local vs. Global
• Reference material
• Appropriateness
• Timeliness
• Proprietary information
• Cultures/Languages considerations

Taught at the DoubleTree Hotel on the waterfront in San Pedro in Southern California, the Accident Prevention through Safety Recommendations Course consists of 4.5 training days (36 classroom hours). Students receive class notes, lecture outlines, additional reference material and a Certificate of Completion. The classes start each morning at 0800 and end at noon on the last day.

• "I liked the interactive group sessions, i.e., computer work and presentations."
• "I liked the NTSB data base [on recommendations] and videos."
• " . . . liked the process of making the recs"
• "I liked everything."

• Barry Sweedler