The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has rolled out a new database query system—Case Analysis and Reporting Online (Carol)—that will serve as a central repository for public access to investigation, safety recommendations, and dockets across all of the agency’s modes. In keeping with federal data requirements for open data, Carol also changes the way the NTSB shares information with other agencies, it said.
The NTSB’s information previously was siloed in three separate query systems involving dockets, the aviation database, and safety recommendations. This approach did not provide for queries on details or findings in non-aviation accidents, the Safety Board added.
In development for more than two years at the behest of a congressional directive, Carol will enable users to query information from all modes and seamlessly move through information, the NTSB said. “Carol allows users to quickly find data to questions like ‘To what degree are safety management systems, or impairment, or fatigue a factor in NTSB-investigated accidents across all modes of transportation?’”
Currently, all 15,000-plus NTSB safety recommendations and aviation investigation information since 2008 are available in Carol. Investigative information from other modes and older aviation investigation data is being migrated into the system.
The agency further allowed that the acronym is a nod to its former analyst Carol Floyd, an analyst who retired in 2017 after four decades with the NTSB.