United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1997-07-23 monographic deposited born digital 74 p. GA 1.13:RCED-97-142 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-142 P0b002ee180387717 f:rc97142 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-142 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-142 RCED-97-142 Railroad industry Railroad safety Safety regulation Inspection Railroad accidents Railroad transportation operations Interagency relations Federal/state relations Equipment maintenance Occupational safety FRA Safety Assurance and Compliance Program Silver Spring (MD) Secaucus (NJ) Chapter Report RCED Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed operational and safety trends in the railroad industry, focusing on how the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has responded to these trends by developing a new partnering approach for improving safety on the nation's rail lines.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) railroad safety has improved significantly over the past 20 years; (2) reported accident and injury rates are down 70 and 74 percent, respectively, from 1976 levels; (3) railroad industry representatives attribute the reductions to improvements made to the railroads' plant and equipment; (4) however, labor representatives expressed concern that, despite this progress, heavier loads and increased traffic may adversely affect rail safety in the future; (5) rail safety data indicate that the progress in reducing accidents has slowed in recent years; (6) while preliminary data for 1996 show improvements in key safety statistics, about 1,000 people die each year as a result of grade-crossing accidents and trespassing, 11,000 railroad employees are injured, thousands of people are evacuated from their homes as a result of the hazardous materials that are released during train accidents; (7) FRA instituted an important shift in its safety program in 1993 to address safety problems in the rail industry; (8) rather than using violations and civil penalties as the primary means to obtain compliance with railroad safety regulations, FRA has emphasized cooperative partnerships with other federal agencies, railroad management, labor unions, and the states; (9) the partnering efforts generally focus on the nation's larger railroads and have resulted in FRA inspectors' conducting fewer site-specific inspections of the railroad industry overall; (10) while the preliminary data for 1996 show improvements, it is too early to determine if FRA's new approach will sustain a long-term decline in accidents and fatalities; and (11) in addition, FRA has allocated fewer resources to responding to concerns about the level of workplace injuries for railroad employees and railroad bridge safety. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-142/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-142.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-142/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-142.pdf GAO/RCED-97-142 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-142 Chapter Report GAO/RCED-97-142; Rail Transportation: Federal Railroad Administration's New Approach to Railroad Safety; Railroad industry Railroad safety Safety regulation Inspection Railroad accidents Railroad transportation operations Interagency relations Federal/state relations Equipment maintenance Occupational safety FRA Safety Assurance and Compliance Program Silver Spring (MD) Secaucus (NJ)