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FRA 02-06
Contact: Steve Kulm
Tel.: (202) 493-6024
Thursday, March 2, 2006
New Federal Rule Aims to Reduce Human Error As Cause of Train Accidents
Visiting a railroad employee training facility in Atlanta, GA, Federal Railroad
Administration Administrator Joseph H. Boardman announced today that his agency
intends to issue regulations to address the most common human errors that cause
train accidents.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is accelerating development of a rule
that will focus on reducing the most common human errors such as improperly
lined track switches, shoving or pushing rail cars without properly monitoring
for safe conditions, and leaving rail cars in a position that obstruct an
adjacent track, Boardman said. The proposed regulations will be published by
September 2006.
“The new regulation will provide additional enforcement authority over
violations of common operating practice errors,” said Boardman. “This effort is
one of many aggressive steps we are taking to prevent train accidents from
occurring in the first place,” he added.
Human factors are the leading cause of train accidents, accounting for 38
percent of the total, Boardman said. The new rule would be the first significant
update of Federal regulations governing railroad employee adherence to operating
rules. FRA also is actively working on other initiatives to reduce human
factor-caused train accidents including a pilot project to study ‘close
calls’—or events that do not result in an accident, but could have, and research
to address railroad worker fatigue to improve train crew scheduling practices.
Since the National Rail Safety Action Plan was unveiled in May 2005 by
Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, FRA has made significant progress on
each of its specific elements including reducing human factor-caused train
accidents, addressing fatigue among railroad operating employees, improving
track safety, enhancing hazardous materials safety and emergency response
preparedness, and improving highway-rail grade crossing safety.
Boardman made today’s announcement while touring CSX Transportation’s
state-of-the-art Railroad Education & Development Institute (REDI).
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Briefing Room