Safety regulations for high-hazard industries

Published: May 31, 2019, 8 p.m.

How should safety regulations be designed for high-hazard industries like the pipeline industry? Should they specify technical requirements, or should they be less prescriptive but require that management engage with reducing the risk of a catastrophic accident? Raimund Laqua, Founder and Chief Compliance Engineer at Lean Compliance Consulting, discusses a recent shift in the United States towards the latter approach, what this type of regulation might look like in practice, and a recent report on “Designing Safety Regulations for High-Hazard Industries” from the United States Transportation Research Board.