Western Railroad Discussion > FRA blasted on crossing accident inspections

The NY Times has a report about criticisms of the FRA, which investigated just 9 of the 3,045 collisions reported to it. According to the admin's Inspector General, the admin should stop taking the word of the railroads, and do serious investigations. And, it should levy fines. In just 5% of cases were fines assessed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/02/national/02rail.html

The FRA issued its own response, which differs with the IG's findings.

Why is anyone surprised? Federal Agencies have been cut to the bone and muscle for the last three administrations, under a "Starve the Beast" budgetary policy. Then the IG wonders in print why...No staff, dummy !

How about Federal fines for stopping on crossings, running around gates, and driving under lowered gates? If that is what they mean by fines, "bring 'em on".

Here is the DOT IG Report:

http://www.oig.dot.gov/StreamFile?file=/data/pdfdocs/mh2006016.pdf

Dave

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The NY Times has a report about criticisms of the
> FRA, which investigated just 9 of the 3,045
> collisions reported to it. According to the
> admin's Inspector General, the admin should stop
> taking the word of the railroads, and do serious
> investigations. And, it should levy fines. In just
> 5% of cases were fines assessed.
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/02/national/02rail.
> html
>
> The FRA issued its own response, which differs
> with the IG's findings.

Excuse me, but aren't those investigations the province of the NTSB, at least the most serious ones, like the Metra accident in Elmwood Park, IL, which they are all over? They also dug into the school bus accident in Cary, IL ten years ago. I'd also think that most crossing accidents are not in need of a Federal investigation; if the local police determine that someone drove around the crossing gates and got catapulted into the great beyond, case closed.

The article looks to me as if the Times is giving itself a good back-patting. "We published this series, and look at the response we got. What good boys are we!" They should try not to break their arms.

That is about the accuracy rate for a story in the Old York Times. Who wrote the article, Jayson Blair from Bermuda?

>>>The NY Times has a report about criticisms of the FRA, which investigated just 9 of the 3,045 collisions reported to it.

You obviously haven't read the article or
the IG report.

Dave


karldotcom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > That is about the accuracy rate for a story in
> the Old York Times. Who wrote the article, Jayson
> Blair from Bermuda?
>
> >>>The NY Times has a report about
> criticisms of the FRA, which investigated just 9
> of the 3,045 collisions reported to it.

ddkid Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Excuse me, but aren't those investigations the
> province of the NTSB


The accident investigation is up to the NTSB, but the NTSB has no ability to fine entities into corrective action. That is (technically) the FRA's role. The FRAs role should be to look for patterns of failure, and assess fines when corrective action isnt taken.

Obviously, when they look at only 9 out of 3000+ incidents, they cannot do much overall analysis.

The layering of authority of anything railroad is:
The railroad itself
The state DOT
The FRA
and if accident occures the NTSB
so how come nobody points finger at the DOT ????

railstiesballast Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How about Federal fines for stopping on crossings,
> running around gates, and driving under lowered
> gates? If that is what they mean by fines, "bring
> 'em on".


Who is going to do that? Surely not the local cops.

>The layering of authority of anything railroad is:
>The railroad itself
>The state DOT
>The FRA
>and if accident occures the NTSB
>so how come nobody points finger at the DOT ????

This would reflect reality if reshuffled to read:

The FRA
The state PUCs
The railroad itself

There is no overlapping jurisdiction between Federal and State, although to the casual observer there appears to be because about 10 years ago, the state PUCs were empowered to enforce Federal regulations. Typically, Federal is operational and safety, while State is more clearances around the tracks and the configuration of walkways (toe paths). The only time the NTSB gets involved is if someone calls them in, which is what usually happens. It investigates, analyzes, and then issues /recommendations/. It would like to issue /binding decisions/, but it can't.

All finger pointing should be directed at congress and the lobbyists.

Jaap Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The layering of authority of anything railroad
> is:
> The railroad itself
> The state DOT
> The FRA
> and if accident occures the NTSB
> so how come nobody points finger at the DOT
> ????
>
The FRA is the DOT.

>The FRA is the DOT.

More accurately stated: "The FRA is part of the DOT." As stated above, the FRA is equal to the DOT, which isn't really the case.

Knowing both FRA and State inspectors, The State takes the lead on inspecting crossings while the FRA generally handles track and equipment. The NY Times is probably up to their usual misinformation again.

Ted Curphey
funnelfan@icehouse.net

If you would spend less time putting the
complete text of a copyrighted story
on TO and actually reading it, you would
have seen that the Time's quotes from the
IG report are accurate.

The questions about who has the authority
to investigate accidents were raised
by members.

Dave


funnelfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Knowing both FRA and State inspectors, The State
> takes the lead on inspecting crossings while the
> FRA generally handles track and equipment. The NY
> Times is probably up to their usual misinformation
> again.
>
> Ted Curphey

What, our federal government is too close to industries they are supposed to regulate? Oh my, the "Times" has discovered something not known before!! Of course, you saw the item in the news a month or so ago about the US Dept. of Labor giving Wal-Mart 15 days notice of a "suprise" inspection at a store to see if child labor laws were being violated.

WichitaJct Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What, our federal government is too close to
> industries they are supposed to regulate? Oh my,
> the "Times" has discovered something not known
> before!! Of course, you saw the item in the news a
> month or so ago about the US Dept. of Labor giving
> Wal-Mart 15 days notice of a "suprise" inspection
> at a store to see if child labor laws were being
> violated


The present system is very comfy for the railroads and the FRA. If the number of people being killed at crossings didn't go up, nobody would notice that the FRA is asleep at the switch.

The New Yorkie Times (arf!) has always been anti-states-rights and anti-federalist. The state inspection system works and is preferable as it's more sensitive to local realities.