CROSS was established in 2005 by the Standing Committee on Structural Safety (SCOSS) to collect, analyse, and publish, personal reports about failures and the safety of structures. The objective is to learn from the experiences of engineers and help to prevent future failures. Using successful techniques developed by the aviation industry reports are dealt with in complete confidence. Names of authors are not given and identifying features from event descriptions are removed. A panel of experts provides commentary on the lessons that can be learned, and the reports and comments are published on the website in quarterly Newsletters and added to the searchable data base (www.cross-structural-safety.org). When a trend is detected then action is taken to influence changes in culture and, when possible, in standards or legislation. Examples, and descriptions of failures, with illustrations, will be given along with steps taken to give advice to industry and appropriate authorities from SCOSS and CROSS.

The Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Structural Engineers, Health & Safety Executive,and the Highways Agency, major firms, and representative bodies are strongly supportive. There is considerable interest from several other countries and discussions have been held with representatives from the Structural College of Engineering Australia. A proposal will be made in the paper for adding reports from Australia to the CROSS system with input from a local panel of experts. This will improve the national and international knowledge base for the benefit of engineers, owners, and the public.