[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 40 (Thursday, February 28, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13747-13748]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-04713]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Railroad Administration


Safety Advisory 2013-01; Passing Stop Signals Protecting Movable 
Bridges

AGENCY: Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Department of 
Transportation (DOT).

ACTION: Notice of Safety Advisory.

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SUMMARY: FRA is issuing Safety Advisory 2013-01 to remind track

[[Page 13748]]

owners, railroads, and their employees of the importance of ensuring 
that rails are properly aligned and movable spans are secured before 
permitting a train to pass a signal that is displaying a stop 
indication and protecting a movable bridge. FRA is issuing this notice 
in response to a recent train accident involving a derailment in which 
there was an unsecured swing span that moved laterally during the 
passage of a train. This notice recommends that track owners and 
railroads: (1) Evaluate the design and construction of existing movable 
bridges to determine if effective span locking is being provided; (2) 
review current operating rules and procedures to ensure that these 
instructions adequately protect movable bridges during the operation of 
trains; and (3) ensure that employees authorized to determine whether 
movable bridges are correctly aligned and secured are adequately 
trained to perform these duties.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Carlo M. Patrick, Staff Director, Rail 
and Infrastructure Integrity Division, Office of Railroad Safety, FRA, 
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590, telephone (202) 493-
6399; David R. Killingbeck, Chief Engineer--Structures, Rail and 
Infrastructure Integrity Division, Office of Railroad Safety, FRA, 1200 
New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590, telephone (202) 493-6251; 
or Anna Nassif Winkle, Trial Attorney, Office of Chief Counsel, FRA, 
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590, telephone (202) 493-
6166.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    On November 30, 2012, a Consolidated Rail Corporation mixed freight 
train with two locomotives and 82 freight cars, including 51 hazardous 
materials tank cars, derailed seven cars while crossing a single-leaf 
movable swing bridge. The derailed cars included loaded tank cars of 
vinyl chloride and ethanol. One vinyl chloride tank car was breached, 
resulting in the release of its contents into a waterway and the 
atmosphere, as well as in the subsequent evacuation of approximately 
600 nearby residents.
    Due to the typically limited train traffic over the bridge, it was 
normally left in an open position when not needed in order to allow 
pleasure craft to pass. Upon arriving at the bridge, a train crew would 
normally encounter a stop signal and the bridge in the fully-open 
position, oriented approximately perpendicular to the track. As such, 
once stopped at the signal, the train crew normally would request the 
bridge to close using the key pad on the locomotive radio. Through the 
use of a programmable logic controller, an automated sequence would 
commence closing and seating the bridge and then moving the slide lock 
rails into the locked position. Once the slide lock rails were fully 
engaged, a signal to proceed would be displayed.
    Following the derailment, the swinging end of the movable span was 
found to be laterally displaced approximately three feet. Although 
FRA's investigation of this accident is ongoing, and the probable 
causes and contributing factors have not yet been established, 
preliminary indications are that the movable span was not locked in 
place and moved or rotated laterally during the passage of the train. 
Unlike most swing bridges that possess end wedges that when driven, 
prevent rotation of the span, the subject bridge was a rare, shear-pole 
swing span that had neither end wedges nor span locks. The slide rails 
that were part of the movable bridge rail joints provided the only 
means of securing the span from rotating.
    Recommended Action: In light of the above discussion, FRA 
recommends that track owners and railroads:
    1. Evaluate the design of existing movable bridges, especially 
swing bridges, to determine if effective span locking, independent of 
rail locking, is being provided as recommended in Chapter 15 (Steel 
Structures) of the current American Railway Engineering and 
Maintenance-of-Way Association Manual for Railway Engineering.
    2. Evaluate operating rules and procedures that permit the 
operation of trains past a stop signal protecting a movable bridge to 
ensure their adequacy to prevent operation of trains should the bridge 
not be properly aligned and secured.
    3. Review the adequacy of all training given to employees 
authorized to determine that a movable bridge is properly aligned and 
locked to ensure that employees are capable of correctly determining 
that the movable bridge is safe for train movements.
    FRA encourages track owners and railroads to take actions that are 
consistent with the preceding recommendations and to take other actions 
to help ensure the safety of the Nation's railroads, their employees, 
and the general public. FRA may modify this Safety Advisory 2013-01, 
issue additional safety advisories, or take other appropriate actions 
it deems necessary to ensure the highest level of safety on the 
Nation's railroads, including pursuing other corrective measures under 
its rail safety authority.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on February 22, 2013.
Jo Strang,
Associate Administrator for Railroad Safety/Chief Safety Officer.
[FR Doc. 2013-04713 Filed 2-27-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-06-P