FRA

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FRA

FRA Promotes Highway-Rail Grade Croessing Safety and Prevention with Grant to Operation Lifesaver

July 1, 2006 Railfanning.org News Wire

WASHINGTON — Preventing and reducing collisions, fatalities and injuries arising from highway-rail grade crossing and railroad trespass incidents is the goal of a $1.03 million Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) grant to Operation Lifesaver, Inc. (OLI), a not-for-profit railroad safety education organization. Trespassing and highway-rail grade crossing deaths comprise approximately 95 percent of all rail-related fatalities in the United States each year. The grant funding will be used for public education and awareness programs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. As part of the grant agreement, OLI is required to receive 25 percent matching in-kind contributions from non-government

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New FRA Study Re-Affirms Safety of Push-Pull Passenger Rail Operations

July 1, 2006 Railfanning.org News Wire

WASHINGTON — A comprehensive federal study of accident data found that push-pull passenger rail service has an excellent safety record and that a train being pushed has virtually no greater likelihood of derailing after a highway-rail grade crossing collision than one with a locomotive in the lead, Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph H. Boardman announced. The new analysis of grade crossing accidents found that from 1996 to 2005, only three push trains derailed out of 218 collisions and two pull trains derailed out of 290 collisions. This difference in the rate of derailment between push and pull modes is a statistically

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FRA: First-Ever Freight Locomotive Crashworthiness Standards to Improve Protection for Train Crews

June 29, 2006 Railfanning.org News Wire

WASHINGTON – Train crews involved in a locomotive collision will have a better chance of survival with reduced injuries as a result of the first-ever federal freight locomotive crashworthiness standards, Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph H. Boardman said. The regulation published June 28 is intended to prevent the locomotive cab from being crushed during a head-on collision with another locomotive, or when it strikes the rear of another train, a shifted load on a train on an adjacent track, or a vehicle at a highway-rail grade crossing, Boardman said. “This regulation will give engineers and conductors a better chance to walk

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FRA

New FRA Study Re-Affirms Safety of Push-Pull Passenger Rail Operations

June 27, 2006 Railfanning.org News Wire

WASHINGTON – A comprehensive federal study of accident data found that push-pull passenger rail service has an excellent safety record and that a train being pushed has virtually no greater likelihood of derailing after a highway-rail grade crossing collision than one with a locomotive in the lead, Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph H. Boardman announced. “Preventing accidents and protecting passengers have much more to do with improving safety than whether the locomotive is in the front or rear of a train,” Boardman said of the report’s findings. The study re-affirms the conclusions of a previous report issued in July 2005 by

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New Federal Rule Aims to Reduce Human Error As Cause of Train Accidents

March 16, 2006 Railfanning.org News Wire

ATLANTA – Visiting a railroad employee training facility in Atlanta, Federal Railroad Administration Administrator Joseph H. Boardman announced March 2 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

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Federal Railroad Administration Urges Safer Shipments of Time-Sensitive Hazardous Materials by Rail

November 1, 2005 Railfanning.org News Wire

WASHINGTON — Railroads, manufacturers, refiners, and businesses that ship or receive hazardous materials by rail should immediately improve procedures for tracking the movement of time-sensitive shipments, according to a Safety Advisory distributed by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) on Oct. 5. “Anyone involved in shipping hazardous materials must take the necessary steps to ensure that time-sensitive products are properly tracked from origin to final destination,” said FRA Administrator Joseph H. Boardman. “There is no margin for error when it comes to shipping hazardous materials. Everyone involved in this process has to get it right.” The Safety Advisory requests that all