Monday, August 02, 1999 (Washington, DC)

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney E. Slater and Federal Railroad Administrator Jolene M. Molitoris today sent to Congress the "Federal Railroad Safety Enhancement Act of 1999" to help achieve the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) goal of zero tolerance for safety hazards and to reauthorize FRA programs as the department continues to vigilantly enhance a safety record that since 1993 reflects a reduction of fatalities and injuries.

"This bill demonstrates President Clinton’s and Vice President Gore’s continued commitment to transportation safety," said Secretary Slater. "Over the past decade, rail safety has improved, while in a period of growing traffic produced by freight rail's current renaissance. As the industry advances, so too must the improvements in safety that this bill will help ensure."

The Clinton-Gore bill is a four-year authorization that would also provide the states, railroad labor and management and FRA with both the guidance and the flexibility necessary to eliminate safety hazards. The bill recognizes the need for safety improvements and proposes new measures to help reduce railroad employee fatigue, foster a positive safety culture in the industry and improve highway-rail grade crossing safety.

"Major safety breakthroughs have been achieved during the Clinton-Gore administration through partnerships among FRA, railroad labor and industry to develop regulations and address root causes of carrier-wide safety problems," said FRA Administrator Molitoris. "The trend is in the right direction, but in order to achieve our goal of zero tolerance, our challenge must be to greatly accelerate this pace and build upon the lessons we have learned."

Between 1993 and 1998, despite increases of 11 percent in highway traffic and 17 percent in train traffic, collisions at highway-rail grade crossings have decreased 28 percent, crossing deaths have fallen 31 percent, total accidents and incidents throughout the railroad industry have decreased 33 percent, overall railroad fatalities have decreased 21 percent, and total railroad injuries have decreased 40 percent.

FRA and its more than 700 employees help to ensure the safety of the nation's 700 railroads, including the regulation and inspection of 220,000 miles of track and more than 1.2 million cars and locomotives.

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Congressional Findings: The bill proposes a series of five findings by the Congress. The first three express support for two of FRA’s major partnership efforts--the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee and the Safety Assurance and Compliance Program. The fourth finding endorses the work of FRA, rail labor, and rail management to sustain and achieve a positive safety culture on the railroads. The last finding stresses the need for statutory changes to improve rail safety, especially in the human factor areas of fatigue and safety culture and in the area of grade crossing safety.

Major Initiatives

Fatigue: The bill attacks fatigue which significantly reduces the alertness of employees, causes railroad incidents and is one of the most pervasive safety issues in the railroad industry.

Fatigue Management Plans: The legislation builds on the voluntary cooperative efforts of the North American Rail Alertness Partnership concerning fatigue. The proposal complements the March 1999 statement of guiding principles on work/rest issues signed by the largest of the Class I railroads and two labor organizations representing their train crews.

The bill requires each Class I, Class II, commuter, and intercity passenger railroad to submit a fatigue management plan covering its train, dispatching service, signal, and track maintenance employees.

The plan would include appropriate fatigue countermeasures to address the railroad’s specific operating circumstances and deal with such matters as education on fatigue issues; joint labor-management initiatives on sleep disorders; staffing levels; and scheduling practices.

The plan requires either joint development with all affected labor organizations and reflects their concurrence, or it includes separate comments from any organization that does not concur in the plan.

The bill offers railroad labor and management incentives to come to agreement on ways to reduce on-the-job fatigue of these employees. Carriers would be permitted to take a course different from the current limitations of the statute on railroad employees’ hours of service, upon joint submission of a waiver application by the railroad and affected labor organizations, provided that the waiver is in the public interest and consistent with railroad safety.

The legislation provides a phased approach that is both reasonable and effective over time and that encourages consultation between carriers and affected employee groups on the development and modification of fatigue management plans. Carriers can tailor their fatigue management plans to best meet their various operating needs, and these plans can be modified as knowledge of the science of fatigue and its practical applications evolves.

Hours of Service: The bill would also amend and extend the basic protections of the statute on hours of service to the employees of railroad contractors who install, repair, or maintain railroad signals.

Safety Culture: The bill also seeks to reduce human-factor causation of injuries, wrecks, and deaths by improving the safety culture in the railroad industry by expanding and strengthening existing statutory protections for employee whistleblowers. These statutory protections would be extended to cover three new categories of activities: (1) reporting injuries to the railroad; (2) cooperating with an FRA or NTSB safety investigation; or (3) refusing to authorize use of equipment, track, or structures that the employee reasonably believes pose an imminent danger to human life, if the employee is responsible for inspecting or repairing such.

The bill would make punitive damages available in all cases, not only in those where the discriminatory action does not affect pay, and would raise the maximum allowable punitive damages from $20,000 to $100,000.

Under current law, claims are resolved before a public law board or other body under the procedures of Sec. 3 of the Railway Labor Act.

The bill would give employees the option of challenging carrier action either through the existing Railway Labor Act arbitration process or as a tort claim in Federal court. One of the major problems with the Railway Labor Act arbitration process is that it builds on a written record that does not allow for discovery. By opening up the avenue of Federal court actions where the record below has not been adequately developed, the bill will provide an effective tool to deter discriminatory actions and to compensate whistleblowers who have suffered such actions.

Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Safety: The bill would facilitate expansion of the Federal program to establish systems for notifying railroads of emergency grade-crossing problems using toll-free telephone numbers, by providing for the program to grow railroad by railroad rather than State by State; deter motorists’ violations of grade crossing signals by calling for FRA to develop model State legislation on civil or criminal penalties for grade crossing violations; and assure updating of the National crossing inventory so that Federal funds for crossings. improvement or elimination can be directed to the highest risk crossings.

Other Provisions: User Fees to Fund FRA’s Rail Safety Program; Broadened Inspection Authority to Monitor Railroads’ Radio Communications Outside the Presence of Railroad Personnel for Railroad Safety Purposes; Regulatory Authority in the Noise Area for High Speed Rail, Authority to Issue Rules on Noise Emissions from Trains Operating More than 150 MPH.