# The Railway Safety Regulator says fatalities are the industry’s greatest safety challenge. Its latest data shows the public accounted for 95.4-percent of all fatalities. Despite the overall decline in railway occurrences, fatalities increased by 25.9-percent, rising from 139 to 175 in 2025/2026. Security-related occurrences fell to five-thousand-710, representing an 11.2-percent year-on-year decrease. Theft of railway assets declined by 10.2-percent, while vandalism decreased by 15.1-percent. Railway Safety CEO Brian Monakali says fatalities are attributed to a combination of factors, some of which are not in the direct control of operators.
Railway Safety Regulator says fatalities are the industry’s greatest challenge