Transportation safety improvements spurred by National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommendations are highlighted in a video released yesteerday as part of the NTSB’s ongoing commemoration of its 50^th anniversary.

The NTSB was created April 1, 1967, as part of the newly created Department of Transportation. In 1975 the NTSB became an independent federal agency, and remains so today.

The work of the NTSB, throughout its 50-year history, is responsible for the transformational improvements in transportation safety that make us all safer today. The NTSB has investigated thousands of accidents and made more than 14,500 recommendations to improve transportation safety. More than 80 percent of these accident-prevention recommendations have been acted upon favorably, saving countless lives.

Charged by Congress with investigating every civil aviation accident in the United States and significant accidents in other modes of transportation -- railroad, highway, marine, and pipeline -- the NTSB determines the probable cause of those accidents and issues safety recommendations aimed at preventing future accidents. 

On average the NTSB investigates 1,600 aviation accidents and incidents, 22 highway crashes, nine rail accidents, three pipeline or hazardous materials accidents, and 30 maritime accidents each year, and issues more than 280 safety recommendations, all with the goal of saving lives by preventing future accidents.

NTSB employees at the agency’s headquarters premiered the video during an annual employee recognition ceremony held April 27, 2017. The NTSB’s 50^th anniversary video is now available on the NTSB’s YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux_tijGI5kw. More information about the NTSB’s 50-year history of making transportation safer yesterday, today and tomorrow is available on the NTSB’s 50^th anniversary page at ntsb.gov/ntsb50. Join the online conversation at #NTSB50.