Since its creation in 1967, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has investigated more than 132,000 aviation accidents and thousands of surface transportation accidents. On call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, NTSB investigators travel throughout the country and to every corner of the world to perform investigations. Thanks to this dedication, the NTSB has become recognized as the world's leading accident investigation agency.

The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent agency charged with determining the probable cause of transportation accidents and promoting transportation safety. The Board investigates accidents, conducts safety studies, evaluates the effectiveness of other government agencies' programs for preventing transportation accidents, and reviews the appeals of enforcement actions involving airman and seaman certificates issues by the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard and civil penalty actions taken by the FAA.

Since its creation in 1967 as an accident investigation agency within the newly created U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), the NTSB's mission has been to determine the probable cause of transportation accidents and to formulate safety recommendations to improve transportation safety.

From 1983 through 1998, at least 137,338 people died and 99,812 people were injured in fatal crashes involving hard core drinking drivers, a term used in this report to include repeat offender drinking drivers as well as offenders with high blood-alcohol concentrations. In 1998 alone, hard core drinking drivers were involved in a minimum of 6,370 highway fatalities, the estimated cost of which was at least $5.3 billion.

Despite the growing demands of the U.S. aviation system, the system continues to maintain a high level of safety. There are two ways to prevent fatalities in air travel: by preventing accidents, and by protecting aircraft occupants in the accidents that do occur.

Virtually all commercial trucks, drivers, and motor carriers are subject to safety regulation. Those operating in interstate commerce are subject to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations and the Hazardous Material Regulations as well as to State laws and regulations.

The National Transportation Safety Board relies on many external databases when performing accident investigations, safety studies, and special investigations. Most of these databases are sponsored and operated by the modal administrations of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). The Board's ability to study important safety issues is often affected by poor data quality. The Board studied transportation safety databases to evaluate data quality issues and to encourage improvements in this area. The effort had four specific objectives: (a) highlight the value and potential uses of...

Fifteen-passenger vans, which make up about 0.25 percent of the passenger vehicle fleet in the United States, are frequently used to transport school sport teams, van pools, church groups, and other groups.

Certification of systems that are critical to the safety of flight has been the focus of several recently concluded National Transportation Safety Board accident investigations of transport-category airplanes: USAir flight 427 in 1999; TWA flight 800 in 2000; Alaska Airlines flight 261 in 2002; and American Airlines flight 587 in 2004. Each of these investigations raised questions about the certification process used by the FAA to determine compliance with airworthiness standards.

Motorcoach safety has received increased public attention after several serious accidents during 2011, some of which involved curbside carriers. As a result, the National Transportation Safety Board conducted an investigation of motorcoach safety with a focus on curbside operations. This report (1) describes the characteristics of the curbside business model among interstate motorcoach carriers; (2) describes the safety record of interstate motorcoach carriers, including those that use a curbside business model; and (3) evaluates the adequacy of safety oversight for interstate motorcoach...