Action
Notice.
Summary
On June 18, November 22, and November 29, 1996, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) published final rules amending the railroad accident reporting regulations at 49 CFR part 225. 61 FR 30940, 61 FR 59368, 61 FR 60632, respectively. In response to the final rule published June 18, 1996, several railroads and railroad associations filed petitions for reconsideration raising various concerns with its contents and its implementation date of January 1, 1997. Some of those concerns were addressed by FRA in the November 22, 1996 Federal Register document (61 FR 59368). The other issues were addressed in a document issued December 16, 1996 (FRA Docket No. RAR-4, Notice No. 16), which will be published in the Federal Register on December 23, 1996. Four of the several rules to amend 49 CFR part 225 that were issued on December 16, 1996, contain amendments to the approved information collection activities, while one adds a new information collection requirement. In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), Pub. L. No. 104-13, Section 2, 109 Stat. 163 (1995) (codified as revised at 44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), and its implementing regulations, 5 CFR Part 1320, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is announcing a 60-day comment period on these amendments. The information collection requirements contained in the June 18, 1996, final rule were approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the PRA under OMB control number 2130-0500. This approval expires on August 31, 1999. Below are brief summaries of the five amendments to 49 CFR part 225 that constitute information collection activities that FRA will submit for clearance by OMB as required by the PRA: 1. FRA is excepting from the requirements regarding an Internal Control Plan delineated in Sec. 225.33(a)(3) through (a)(10) the following: (i) Railroads that operate or own track on the general railroad system of transportation (general system) that have 15 or fewer employees covered by the hours of service laws (49 U.S.C. 21101- 21107) and (ii) railroads that operate or own track exclusively off the general system. However, these excepted railroads must adopt and comply with the intimidation and harassment policies outlined in Sec. 225.33(a)(1) and (2). FRA has developed model statements of policy on intimidation and harassment to be posted by these excepted railroads. FRA estimates that this requirement will affect approximately 433 railroads. The only burden to be encountered by these excepted railroads will be filling in certain information on the FRA- prepared model policy statement and posting the completed statement. It is estimated that this will take each railroad approximately one-half hour to perform. This amendment will reduce the first year burden from 4,351 to 2,487 hours. In subsequent years the burden will be reduced from 350 to 14 burden hours annually. 2. FRA is also excepting from the recordkeeping requirements regarding accountable injuries and illnesses and accountable rail equipment accidents/incidents found in Sec. 225.25(a) through (g) the following railroads: (i) railroads that operate or own track on the general system that have 15 or fewer employees covered by the hours of service laws (49 U.S.C. 21101 21107) and (ii) railroads that operate or own track exclusively off the general system. FRA estimates that this amendment will affect approximately 433 railroads. This amendment will reduce the annual burden for this information collection requirement from 15,554 to 15,054 hours. 3. Further, FRA is excepting railroads that operate or own track exclusively off the general system from all the requirements of Part 225 to record or report injuries and illnesses incurred by all classifications of persons that result from most non-train incidents. (A small subcategory of non-train incidents involving in-service on- track equipment must continue to be reported and recorded.) FRA estimates that this amendment will affect approximately 115 railroads. This amendment will reduce the annual burden for this information collection requirement from 2,592 to 2,575 hours annually. 4. In order to minimize the burden of requiring the preparer's signature on each and every monthly list of reportable injuries and illnesses to be posted for each railroad's establishments, FRA is amending Sec. 225.25(h)(12) so as to provide railroads with an alternative to signing each establishment's monthly list. Specifically, the preparer of the monthly list of reportable injuries and illnesses for the railroad may instead sign a cover sheet or memorandum attaching the monthly lists for each establishment for that railroad. The cover sheet memorandum must list all the establishments that post the monthly list of reportable injuries and illnesses and must be signed by the preparer. This change will have minimal affect on the annual burden associated with this information collection requirement and will not reduce the time per monthly report or annual burden. 5. Finally, FRA is amending Sec. 225.25(h), by adding Sec. 225.25(h)(15), to address any possible concerns with privacy rights of the employee by providing that the railroad is permitted not to post information on an injury or illness reported to FRA, if the employee who incurred the injury or illness makes a request in writing to the railroad's reporting officer that his or her particular injury or illness not be posted. It is estimated that approximately 25 employees will make this request annually. FRA estimates that it will take a combined total of 30 minutes for the employee to prepare and forward the letter to the reporting officer and an additional 30 minutes will be required for administrative purposes by the reporting officer to make sure the injury or illness in question does not get posted. The total burden for this requirement per case is one hour. The annual burden for this information collection requirement is 25 hours.