Summary: Railroad safety has improved significantly during the past 20 years, with both reported accident and injury rates down more than 70 percent from 1976 levels. Railroad industry representatives credit this improvement to better railway plants and equipment. Labor representatives, however, are concerned that heavier loads and increased traffic may adversely affect rail safety in the future. Rail safety data indicate that the progress in reducing accidents has slowed in recent years. Although preliminary data for 1996 show improvements in key safety statistics, about 1,000 people still die each year because of grade-crossing accidents and trespassing, 11,000 railroad employees are injured, and thousands of people are evacuated from their homes when hazardous materials are released during train accidents. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) changed its safety program in 1993 to address safety problems in the rail industry. Rather than relying on detecting violations and imposing civil penalties to obtain compliance with railroad safety regulations, FRA has emphasized cooperative partnerships with other federal agencies, railroad management, labor unions, and the states. These efforts focus on the nation's larger railroads and have resulted in fewer site-specific FRA inspections of the railroad industry overall. Although preliminary data for 1996 show improvements, it is too soon to tell if FRA's new approach will lead to a long-term decline in accidents and fatalities. In addition, FRA has earmarked fewer resources to address concerns about the level of workplace injuries among railroad employees and railroad bridge safety.
