Admissibility of National Transportation Safety Board Reports
The goal of the NTSB is to determine the probable cause of accidents and issues safety recommendations. It does not determine fault or liability. For this reason, whether or not NTSB investigation reports should be admissible as evidence in court has been a controversial issue for years.
Whenever there is a transportation-related crash involving aviation, railroad, highway, marine, or pipeline, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is called in to investigate. The NTSB is an independent federal agency, charged by Congress to investigate transportation accidents, determine the probable cause, and issue safety recommendations in order to prevent similar accidents from happening. Today, the NTSB is vital for the safety of aviation and transportation.
According to the About Page on the National Transportation Safety Board website,
the NTSB originated in the Air Commerce Act of 1926, in which the U.S. Congress charged the U.S. Department of Commerce with investigating the cause of aircraft accidents. Later, that responsibility was given to the Civil Aeronautics Board’s Bureau of Aviation Safety, when it was created in 1940 (History of NTSB).
In 1967, Congress combined all transportation agencies into the U.S. Department of Transportation and declared the NSTB as an independent agency. In doing this, Congress imagined a single organization with a clearly defined mission could more effectively promote a higher level of safety in transportation. But that was not enough; In 1974, the NTSB was reestablished as a separate entity, outside of the Department of Transportation through the Independent Transportation Safety Board Act of 1974. This was done in order to keep the agency entirely impartial by allowing the agency to conduct investigations and explore safety issues free of political pressures.
The goal of the NTSB is to determine the probable cause of accidents and issues safety recommendations. It does not determine fault or liability. For this reason, whether or not NTSB investigation reports should be admissible as evidence in court has been a controversial issue for years. According to Title 49 U.S.C. § 1154(b), “No part of a report of the Board, related to an accident or an investigation of an accident, maybe admitted into evidence or used in a civil action for damages resulting from a matter mentioned in the report.” This law prevents NTSB accident reports from being used as evidence in a court case.
I do not agree with the law that NTSB reports cannot be admitted as evidence in court. An argument that is for keeping accident reports out of the courtroom argues that it would enhance aviation safety. I do not see how that argument could hold up since all accident reports are available to the public either way. In reality, allowing the reports to be admissible would enhance aviation safety, since high profile court cases would bring more attention to the need for new laws and regulations to be created in order to enhance safety. Making accident reports available in court would allow more public knowledge about the need for a change in laws that will ultimately make the aviation industry a safer place.
Another argument used that are in favor of keeping accident reports out of the courts is that it protects the agency from outside influences. The Independent Transportation Safety Board Act of 1974 is what protects the agencies integrity by separating it from the Department of Transportation and in doing so, making the agency completely operate as its own entity. This argument, therefore, is not valid since there is a whole act made just for the purpose of keeping the agency free from outside influences. Without this act, the agency could then find itself being biased and allowing itself to become more easily influenced.
The biggest downside I see in not allowing the reports to be admissible in court is that it makes it harder for injured parties to make a case and recover damages from at-fault organizations. When a lawyer is investigating their case, they ultimately would want to have all the information they can as possible in order to have the tools they need to help their party win the case. Not allowing these accident reports to be used as evidence is a dismissal of useful and factual information that could be very informative and beneficial to a case. In order for both parties to operate fairly, they should have the right to use these accident reports as evidence in court.
The Nation Transportation Safety Board’s accident reports are made by the investigation of professionals and therefore intended to be factual. According to the article by Thomas W. Tobin,
If opinions have somehow found their way into a draft factual report, that should be called to the attention of the investigation group chairman. If a chairman is not inclined to accept what a party considers to be an important factual piece of information in the draft report, the party may ask a higher authority to weigh in, such as the IIC or even the director of the involved NTSB investigation discipline” (Tobin).
This is to say that there are steps that are put in place and continually practiced that prevent the reports from being incorrect or biased. For this reason, there is no reason to think these reports are biased or incorrect.
In conclusion, I believe the arguments presented by people who oppose the NTSB accident reports to be used in courts fall short of the actual benefits it would bring. Allowing NTSB accident reports to be admissible in court would enhance aviation safety, keep the agencies integrity as high as it would without, and make court cases easier for the injured parties since they will be able to use all the information they have available. NTSB reports are investigated by the best in that industry and therefore should be used as a resource.
References
“History of the National Transportation Safety Board.” National Transportation Safety Board.https://www.ntsb.gov/about/history/Pages/default.aspx
“49 U.S. Code § 1154 — Discovery and Use of Cockpit and Surface Vehicle Recordings and Transcripts.” Legal Information Institue, https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/49/1154
Tobin, Thomas W. “NTSB Investigations: Admissible or Not?” Corporate Counsel. (2015). https://www.wilsonelser.com/writable/files/Attorney_Articles_PDFs/016111508wilson-attorney-article.pdf
About Natalia
Natalia Welton-Torres grew up in Columbus, Ohio and studied Aviation Management at Kent State University. Natalia is interested in all things aviation-related, animal-related, and can always be found with a coffee in hand.
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