The Taiwan Transportation Safety Board (TTSB) is hosting the "2023 International Transportation Safety Association Chairman Meeting" from June 5th to June 7th, 2023, at the Le Méridien Taipei Hotel. The meeting is joined by 35 representatives, including directors and senior executives from government accident investigation agencies of 16 countries, including Norway, Australia, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Argentina, Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, Singapore, India, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, the United States, and Taiwan.

The opening ceremony of the meeting took place at 9:00 am on June 5th. Chairman Shinn-Der (Charles) Lin of TTSB, expressed in his welcome speech that the ITSA Chairman Meeting is an important platform for enhancing safety investigation and exchanging opinions for all transportation modes. It provides an opportunity to discuss and update various diverse topics on transportation safety-related information, including thematic safety research, investigation techniques, as well as factors that may pose risks to transportation safety in different countries. Through the sharing of experiences, professional knowledge, and opinions among representatives from different countries regarding transportation accident investigation, as well as discussions and interactions on safety-related issues during the meeting, the participating representatives will undoubtedly gain fruitful results and further strengthen the cooperative channels among ITSA member countries in the areas of transportation accident investigation and safety enhancement.

The agenda for this year's ITSA Chairman Meeting, spanning two and a half days, includes ITSA working group reports, sharing of State recent development and experiences by representatives from different countries, discussions on the application of new technologies in accident investigation, space accident investigation, trends resulting from climate change and COVID's impact on transportation safety, legal challenges, human factors in investigation, safety management systems (SMS), and in-depth discussions on thematic studies and significant transportation accident investigation cases. Additionally, the planning for next year's annual meeting will be proposed by Argentina, the host country of the 2024 ITSA Chairman Meeting, before the conclusion of the meeting.

The International Transportation Safety Association was jointly established in 1993 by transportation safety authorities from the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Its purpose is to independently investigate transportation accidents without apportioning blame or liability, and to share accident investigation experiences among member countries to enhance the safety of various transportation systems. The association's members consist of government agencies responsible for transportation accident investigation in each country. Taiwan became a member in 2000. The Association advocates that only through independent and unbiased investigations can the possible causes of accidents be truly identified, and effective safety improvement recommendations be made.

Vivi Yang, Secretariat Office
Tel: +886-2-7727-6217
E-mail: viviy2314@ttsb.gov.tw