[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 72 (Wednesday, June 5, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5044-S5045]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. WELLSTONE:
  S. 2580. A bill to amend title 49, United States Code, to require the 
National Transportation Safety Board to investigate all fatal railroad 
grade crossing accidents; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Fatal 
Grade Crossing Accident Investigations Act. The bill would require the 
National Transportation Safety Board, NTSB, to investigate the facts, 
circumstances and causes of all accidents at railroad grade crossings 
in which there is a fatality or substantial property damage.
  With this bill, we can correct an important gap in our efforts to 
reduce such accidents. Under current law, NTSB investigations of grade 
crossing accidents are undertaken only in select cases, as highway 
accident investigations. The bill would consider grade

[[Page S5045]]

crossing accidents instead to be railroad accidents, which under 
current law already must be investigated if there is a fatality or 
substantial property damage.
  We need better information on fatal grade crossing accidents so we 
can do more to prevent unnecessary loss of life. According to National 
Railroad Administration Safety Statistics, more than 4,000 accidents 
per year occur at grade crossings. In 2000, 425 of these resulted in 
fatalities. Most fatalities occur at what are called passive grade 
crossings, those offering no warning or signal to a motorist of an 
oncoming train. Of Minnesota's more than 8,000 railroad grade 
crossings, three-fourths are passive crossings. The safety of such 
passive crossings is substantially dependent on such factors as 
physical layout and the adequacy of the view for drivers of approaching 
trains. To make good safety choices, communities, transportation 
agencies and departments at the local, state and federal levels need 
better information. That is one reason site-specific accident 
information is so necessary.
  NTSB investigations are essential not only to prevent future 
accidents, through recommendations on operating rules such as speed 
limits, warning or separation devices, improved signaling, signage, 
improvements for driver visibility and increased enforcement of stop 
signs at passive crossings. But their investigations often are also the 
only means of addressing the role of railroads and their personnel in 
accidents.
  This important issue has been brought to my attention by two 
passionate rail safety advocates in Minnesota, Lillian and Gerry Nybo. 
I have worked closely with the Nybos, who have been at the forefront of 
a national movement, ``Citizens Against Railroad Tragedies.'' Their 18-
year-old son, Gerry, Jr., was killed three years ago this week at an 
unguarded rail grade crossing in Audubon Township in Becker County, 
Minnesota. He has just graduated from high school, and his life was 
full of promise. He friend Ryan Nelson was killed in the same accident. 
This legislation is needed to give families such as the Nybos, who have 
lost family members, the results of investigation into the facts and 
causes of these accidents. It is in memory of Gerry Nybo, Jr. that I 
introduce this legislation today.
  My hope in introducing this bill is to give communities the 
information they need to improve safety at dangerous intersections. I 
urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I ask unanimous consent 
that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 2580

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Fatal Grade Crossing 
     Accident Investigations Act''.

     SEC. 2. GRADE CROSSING ACCIDENTS.

       Section 1131(a)(1) of title 49, United States Code, is 
     amended--
       (1) in subparagraph (B), by striking ``, including a 
     railroad grade crossing accident,''; and
       (2) in subparagraph (C), by inserting ``, including a 
     railroad grade crossing accident,'' after ``railroad 
     accident''.

     SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE AND APPLICABILITY.

       The amendments made by section 2 shall take effect on the 
     date of the enactment of this Act and shall apply with 
     respect to railroad grade crossing accidents that occur on or 
     after that date.
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