Safety connected: Annual Report 2024

In 2024, the Dutch Safety Board contributed to improving safety in the Netherlands by starting 169 investigations and completing 171. These are dealt with in its Annual Report for 2024, whose theme is ‘Safety connected’. The Annual Report features a series of brief interviews in which the Dutch Safety Board employees explain how their investigative work connects them with society. Listening carefully and discussing the investigations with individuals and organisations can increase the impact of the results.

At year-end 2024, the Dutch Safety Board had a staff of 89, whose work is based on its core values of independence, care, and dedication. These core values were redefined in 2024 after an exhaustive internal process. The arrival of Dutch Safety Board member Scott Douglas on 1 September 2024 means that the permanent section of the Board is once again complete.

Most of the Dutch Safety Board’s investigations focused on the aviation and shipping sectors. In 2024, it also released a number of other publications:

• Trustworthy Research, an exploratory study – based on a literature review, case studies, and interviews – into the trustworthiness of institutions that conduct research in the public interest.
• Railway accident in Voorschoten, in response to a collision at Voorschoten railway station. In its report, the Safety Board draws attention to the risks involved in carrying out track work while trains are still running.  
• Compromise on Room to Manoeuvre, Managing the safety of shipping in an increasingly crowded North Sea, in which the Dutch Safety Board warns that the risks to shipping posed by busy shipping lanes and the growing number of wind farms and oil platforms at the North Sea are poorly understood.

In 2024, the Dutch Safety Board initiated a number of thematic investigations into how government policy is implemented. These concern not just a single specific safety occurrence – such as a collision between ships or the collapse of a building – but rather a series of incidents in a specific area of policy. The Dutch Safety Board examines the underlying causes, systems, and obstacles. In 2024, for example, it began investigations into the safety and care of people with a serious mental vulnerability and their environment, the safety of children within the Dutch asylum chain, and the safety risks associated with pluvial flooding (i.e. caused by extreme rainfall).