Monday, May 16, 2005
A new plan to improve safety along the nation’s railroads was
unveiled today by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta
during a visit to Columbia, S.C. The plan will help prevent train
accidents caused by human error, improve the safety of hazmat
shipments, minimize the dangers of crew fatigue, deploy state-of-the-
art technologies to detect track defects, and focus inspectors on
safety trouble spots.
Secretary Mineta today outlined the new National Rail Safety Action
Plan, which represents the Department of Transportation’s aggressive
new approach to improving safety throughout the railroad industry.
The plan will target the most frequent, highest-risk causes of
accidents, focus federal oversight and inspection resources, and
accelerate research into new technologies that can vastly improve
rail safety.
“The aggressive and comprehensive plan I am unveiling today will
bolster safety along America’s rails and help prevent the tragic and
costly rail accidents that still plague the nation’s railroad
network. This step-by-step action plan targets the fundamental
factors that cause rail accidents,” Secretary Mineta said.
One of the primary safety issues addressed in the plan is human
error, the largest single factor accounting for 38 percent of all
accidents over the last five years. Preliminary findings from the
tragic accident in Graniteville this January point to human error as
the cause – the failure of a train crew to properly line a switch
back to the mainline track.
Under the plan, Secretary Mineta, with guidance from some of the
nation’s top rail safety advisors, is seeking to develop a new
federal rule to address human factor accidents. He said the
Department is also accelerating research into the role fatigue plays
in accidents to help railroads set better crew sche