Through CROSS-US, individuals may now confidentially submit reports of structural failures, near misses and other similar incidents. First anonymized and de-identified, these reports are then forwarded to a team of distinguished subject matter experts for review.
The reports with analysis commentary are then made available on the website to all free of charge. CROSS also tracks trends, publishes summary or theme reports and may direct issues of interest, such as code-writing bodies, to organisations that may be in a position to improve the standards of practice. Anyone interested in structural safety is encouraged to submit reports and to avail themselves of the valuable information posted.
CROSS-US reports to the SEI Board of Governors (BoG), and will be run through two volunteer groups, an Executive Committee (ExCom) and a panel. The ExCom develops the overall strategy for CROSS-US and provides operational management, including budget development and monitoring.
The panel consists of industry experts of various desired backgrounds and expertise, whose objectives are to provide expert commentary on CROSS-US reports that have been collected and processed, and then disseminate information that could enable practical lessons to be learned about structural safety.
Similar to the UK model, the long-term vision is to be a robust, sustainable operation, overseen by an industry steering committee, with a panel of volunteer technical and professional experts and support from industry and government entities.
CROSS originated in the UK in 2005, is a system designed to improve standards of practice through learning from structural failures and incidents. Modeled after the US Aviation Safety Reporting System designed by NASA, it has been very effective in the UK in improving practice to reduce the incidence of failures. CROSS has proven to be a widely used resource that has positively impacted practice in the UK. For example, following the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy in London in 2017 the UK government is implementing several measures to strengthen building regulations, and one of the recommendations from an Independent Review is that CROSS be expanded.
For more information on Confidential Reporting on Structural Safety (CROSS-US), visit www.CROSS-US.org