New Federal Rule Aims to Reduce Human Error As Cause of Train Accidents
Thursday, March 02, 2006 (Washington, DC)
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
Yeah could be a crazy idea to require the roads to hire more crews and eliminate overtime. Most business do not allow overtime as it is a huge waste of finances, usually better to have more employees makeing regular wage. But, railroads seem to yet be rife with overtime.
Everybody would love that I bet, train crews going “dead” every 8 hours. Or god forbid, only 40 hrs a week, only 8 hrs a day. 8 hours of work and 16 hours off, crazy talk heh.
Yes, Ed, they have. But I seem to remember that not so long ago the UP and the UTU and BLE made an agreement to do just that, but since it caused a change in the union contract, it had to go for a vote of the members. Boy, did that idea not fly!
Rest days do need to be incorparated into railroading,but at the pace that the railroader chooses.I just finished up 9 straight days,and I am taking a 24 hr. rest period.Now some crews that work the mine shifters work 6 days and have 48 hrs. off.But they are not given the choice if they want to do this,they have to.I don’t like being told what days to take off for the fact we work such a wild schedule.Only our body can tell us if we are tired.We was just talking about this at work today.Seems like most people on pool jobs would like the option to take 48 hrs. after 6 days on the road as the mine shifters do.But as I said an option.Cause a road man makes his money going up and back.And hopefully not 12 hrs. on duty.I just made a round trip (112 miles each way) in less than 24 hrs.Also the issue of working 10 hrs. instead of 12 needs to be addressed .[2c]
Yeah,
But the carriers were tying this into the productivity pay and short hand pay…and you know the old heads are not going to give up their productivity pay for anything…which the carriers knew also.
What companies have you worked for? The only companies that don’t like overtime are those that don’t offer any benefits. If you look at employee costs, benefits typically cost a lot more than pay. It is cheaper for companies to work existing employees harder since this does not require them to spend more money for things like health benefits or pension.
What railroad doesn’t already have rules against doing these, common-sense, no-brainers. So, instead of an @$$-chewing or a day off for a rules violation, it’s a firing squad for a federal offense?[xx(]
OK, I see the problem, I included common-sense and government in the same context.[:D][}:)]
That is completely wrong. Employee benefits typically account for a third or less of payroll costs. Even in the RR industry which has unusually high benefits costs due to high payroll taxes and high health insurance costs as RR health insurance is generally written to cover on the job injury costs as there is no worker’s compensation. Obviously, companies will seek to get the maximum productivity from their employees where it is feasible and safe. That is business.
Between the Liegislators and the Lawyers meddling in operating rules…the rules have become next to unintellegible to the everyday railroader. It is almost to the point that every rail worker that approaches the track needs legal counsel just to interpert the ‘rules’ that are now couched in legalese terms, rather than in simple direct 3rd grade Engli***hat can be understood by everyone concerned.
I know this is ahard question to get an answer to, since things are always changing on the railroad, but what is a typical week like for you. Do you find you get into a routine of getting called at about the same time daily or does it keep changing.
In other words, lets say after your 24 hours off you are called at 6am. You make a trip out, layover, and then back. When will you be called out again? Will it still be morning, or will the timing swing thru the 24 hours? If that is the case, I would guess it takes a long time to get used to the “swing shift” aspect.
Here, after working a road trip we get to book up to 24 hours rest (PLUS a 2 hour call) everytime, if we want.
We can also book 0 hours rest if we want to go back to work right away, and there is a need.
I know of some local agreements that allow crews to book up to 48 hours of rest twice in a 30 day period, if they so choose.
Let the crews make their own choices, if guys want to book that 48 hours twice every 30 days, and 24 hours the rest of the time, then he should be able to. Just the same as the guy who wants to book only 10 hours rest after a trip, let him, or the guy that almost never books rest and just wants to make the big money and run himself into the ground.
It almost always equals out, there’s usually a good mix of guys that want to pace themselves and/or take it easy, and the ones that just want to work all the time.
Up here, though, we also have a milage limit, 3800 a month tops.
mp173.I am usually home about 12hrs…Sometimes I get a long layover of 15-16hrs.When I come off my 24hr rest period at 1:10am I will be first out,ready to be called.From the 22nd of last month till 1:10am on the 3rd, I worked ever day .I was in my home terminal or away on each calender day.I’m usually away from home 24-36 hrs. each trip.Oh did you see the ex-Southern 6033 f-3 go thru your area on the 2nd(Thurs).I had it as a trailing unit (not under power) on the 142 out of Portsmouth Ohio to Williamson WVa.It appeared to just have been restored at the Ohio Central.And of all days to forget my camera !My conductor got a picture on his cell phone so I hope to get a picture soon.It was a Southern fans dream lashup.I had the Southern ordered C-40-8 NS 8692, former Southern SD-40, NS 3215 ,then the ex-Southern F-3 6033.What a cool engine.
Here’s an interesting editorial from Railway Age that ties in to this topic. www.railwayage.com/A/xfromtheeditor.html
Also shows the editor sitting in a cab with the new “retro” control stand.
Jeff