The Accident Investigation Bureau of Nigeria (AIB-N) has secured legal backing to investigate serious accidents and accidents in the aviation, maritime, rail and road sectors in future.
The wider range, from the AIB-N to the multi-modal Nigerian Security Investigations Bureau (NSIB), was sanctioned as President Muhammadu Buhari recently repealed the old AIB Act and passed the new NSIB Act 2022.
The Senate passed the bill earlier this year. The NSIB Act seeks to strengthen investigations into the causal impact of accidents on all modes of transport, including rail and marine, to provide recommendations that stakeholders can draw upon.
In order to achieve the intermodal transport goals in the Senate, AIB-N Commissioner Akin Olateru explained that the establishment of an intermodal transport accident investigation agency independent of regulators and service providers would provide technically accurate, appropriate and timely information indicating that transport modes Can be implemented to prevent accidents.
Globally, multimodal transport has become the future of traffic accident investigations, Olatru said. According to him, just like the air crash, other models will be thoroughly investigated, and there is no intention to shirk responsibility.
He said: “Multimodal transport is widely regarded as the future of transport accident investigation and the transition has been made from existing aviation accident investigation agencies.
“It has become expedient to review the provisions of Section 29 of the Civil Aviation Act (CAA) to establish the NSIB in a separate Act to bring it into sync with contemporary global best practice; Intermodal Investigation Bureau.
“The purpose of the NSIB is to improve safety. It is not to apportion responsibility, but to provide technically accurate, appropriate and timely information that can be used to take steps to prevent recurrence and potentially mitigate damage from such incidents.”
Expansion of AIB’s operations into an intermodal agency was one of Olateru’s main plans when he became AIB’s fourth commissioner/CEO in 2017.
