[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 74 (Monday, April 19, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20420-20421]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-8908]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Office of the Secretary


Privacy Act of 1974: System of Records

AGENCY: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, DOT.

ACTION: Notice to establish a system of records.

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SUMMARY: DOT intends to establish a system of records under the Privacy 
Act of 1974.

DATES: Effective Date: June 1, 2010. If no comments are received, the 
proposal will become effective on the above date. If comments are 
received, the comments will be considered and, where adopted, the 
documents will be republished with changes.

ADDRESSES: Send comments to: Habib Azarsina, Departmental Privacy 
Officer, S-80, United States Department of Transportation, Office of 
the Secretary of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Ave., SE., Washington, 
DC 20590, or [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Habib Azarsina, Departmental Privacy 
Officer, S-80, United States Department of Transportation, Office of 
the Secretary of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Ave., SE., Washington, 
DC 20590, telephone 202-366-1965 or [email protected]

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Department of Transportation system of 
records notice subject to the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a), as 
amended, has been published in the Federal Register and is available 
from the above mentioned address.
SYSTEM NUMBER: DOT/ALL 21

SYSTEM NAME:
    Close Call Confidentiality Reporting System (C[sup3]RS).

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION:
    Unclassified, sensitive.

SYSTEM LOCATION:
    The system is housed on a stand-alone desktop in the C[sup3]RS 
secure room located in room E36-311 at the Bureau of Transportation 
Statistics, United States Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey 
Ave., SE., Washington, DC 20590.

CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE SYSTEM OF RECORDS:
    Railroad employees who report close calls to BTS, either by 
telephone or mail, as part of a five-year demonstration/research 
project are covered by this system of records. These individuals are 
employees of three rail carriers participating in the C\3\RS 
demonstration project. The rail carriers are: Union Pacific Railroad, 
Canadian Pacific Railroad, and New Jersey Transit.
    The C\3\RS demonstration project is a research effort to improve 
safety by using information from close call events to prevent serious 
accidents in the rail industry. A close call or near miss is an unsafe 
event with the potential for a more serious incident resulting in 
greater injury to personnel or damage to equipment above FRA's 
reportable threshold level.
    Employees can report about a near miss event that happened to their 
crew or an event they witnessed about another crew (third party 
reporting). In the case of third party reporting, the employee does not 
provide any PII information on those involved in the reported close 
call. Reporting employees are not allowed to make anonymous close call 
reports.

CATEGORIES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
    Records in the C\3\RS system contain information pertinent to an 
actual close call event submitted to BTS in a C\3\RS report. The 
following PII data elements are included in every C[sup3]RS report 
accepted into the system: The reporting employee's name, age, job 
classification, home address, and home and mobile telephone number(s) 
(if available).

AUTHORITY FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE SYSTEM:
    Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A 
Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), which was enacted August 10, 2005 as 
Public Law 109-59.

PURPOSES:
    The C[sup3]RS collects name, home address, and telephone number(s) 
of railroad employees reporting close calls events to BTS. Qualified 
BTS/C[sup3]RS staff will use the contact information as follows:
     The employee's name and home telephone number will be used 
to generate and give the employee his/her unique confirmation number, 
upon receiving the employee's close call phone message;
     The employee's name and home telephone number will be used 
to notify the employee that BTS has received the employee's C[sup3]RS 
report and to schedule an interview time with the employee for further 
discussion of the close call incident;
     The employee's name and home telephone number will be used 
to initiate the close call interview;
     The employee's name and home address will be used to 
create and mail out a confirmation/rejection letter notifying the 
employee about the status of his/her close call report; and
     The employee's job classification will be used to 
understand the employee's role in the close call incident.

ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE SYSTEM, INCLUDING CATEGORIES 
OF USERS AND THE PURPOSES OF SUCH USES:
    BTS does not share PII information collected for the C\3\RS study 
with other entities. A primary goal of the C\3\RS is to protect the 
identity of any employee who reports a close call incident to BTS. 
Reports collected and maintained in the C\3\RS are protected from 
disclosure as provided in the BTS confidentiality statute (49 U.S.C. 
111(k)) and the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical 
Efficiency Act (CIPSEA) of 2002.

DISCLOSURE TO CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCIES:
    None.

POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR STORING, RETRIEVING, ACCESSING, RETAINING 
AND DISPOSING OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
STORAGE:
    The C\3\RS Demonstration Project stores all data in an electronic 
database in a stand-alone desktop computer attached to a non-network 
printer. The computer and printer are in a secure data collection room. 
Hard-copy documents (work papers) are stored in the secure room and 
shredded after project completion.

RETRIEVABILITY:
    Records are retrieved from the C\3\RS database by confirmation 
number, which uniquely identifies individual reports and by employee 
identification numbers.

SAFEGUARDS:
    All the information BTS obtains, including the PII data, is kept in 
a secure room in the Department of Transportation Headquarters building 
in Washington, DC. Only members of the C\3\RS team who have taken 
confidentiality training and signed a non-disclosure agreement have 
access to

[[Page 20421]]

the secure room. The door of the secure room is kept closed during work 
hours and kept locked when the room is not in use. The stand-alone 
workstation that contains the database is password protected. All paper 
working documents are stored in the secure room and shredded 
immediately after case completion.

RETENTION AND DISPOSAL:
    The C\3\RS project is a five-year research/feasibility study 
subject to availability of funds. BTS will retain the entire C\3\RS 
database for up to ten years after completion of the project (i.e., up 
to fifteen years total). The system is currently unscheduled; pending 
approval of a retention schedule by the National Archives and Records 
Administration (NARA), the records must be kept indefinitely. The 
retention periods that will be proposed to NARA are as follows: upon 
project completion, all PII data fields will be destroyed, and all non-
PII data will be retired to the Federal Records Center (FRC). The non-
PII data will be destroyed 10 years after completion of the study.

SYSTEM MANAGER(S) AND ADDRESS:
    C\3\RS Data Collection Officer, Bureau of Transportation 
Statistics, Research & Innovative Technology Administration, Department 
of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Ave., SE., RTS-31, Washington, DC 
20590.

NOTIFICATION PROCEDURE:
    Individuals seeking to determine whether their information is 
contained in this system should address written inquiries to: C\3\RS 
Data Collection Officer, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Research 
& Innovative Technology Administration, Department of Transportation, 
1200 New Jersey Ave., SE., RTS-31, Washington, DC 20590. Requests 
should include name, address and telephone number and a description of 
the request.

RECORD ACCESS PROCEDURES:
    Same as ``Notification Procedure.''

CONTESTING RECORD PROCEDURES:
    Same as ``Notification Procedure.''

RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES:
    Information is obtained directly from the individuals who report 
close call incidents to BTS.

EXEMPTIONS CLAIMED FOR THE SYSTEM:
    None.

    Dated: April 13, 2010.
Habib Azarsina,
Departmental Privacy Officer, 202-366-1965.
[FR Doc. 2010-8908 Filed 4-16-10; 8:45 am]
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