Quality of Transit Service

Fatalities

Concepts

A fatality is defined as a transit-caused death confirmed within 30 days following a transit related incident.

Individuals Involved

Fatalities are categorized according to nine categories of individuals:

• Passengers: A person who is on board a transit vehicle or who is boarding / alighting, including those using ramps and lifts.
• Revenue facility occupants: A person who is inside the public passenger area of transit revenue facility. Employees, other workers or trespassers are not transit facility occupants.
• Employees: An individual who is compensated by the transit agency.
• Other workers: A person who is not employed by the transit agency or a purchased transportation (PT) provider contracted to provide specific services to the transit agency.
• Bicyclist: An individual on a bicycle.
• Pedestrian: A person walking in a crosswalk, out of a crosswalk, crossing tracks, or walking along tracks.
• Other Vehicle Occupant: A driver or passenger in a privately-owned vehicle.
• Individuals Committing Suicide: Individuals intentionally killing themselves.
• Others: A person who is not included in the above categories.

Figure 31: Total Fatalities (*) 1999 – 2008

(*) Data excludes Commuter Rail and includes suicides. Data is reported by calendar year.

Figure 32: Fatalities per 100 Million Passenger Miles — 1999-2008

Distribution of Fatalities

Comments

Most victims in transit-related accidents are non-passengers. Passenger fatalities account for 10 percent of all fatalities.