Railroads and Federal Laws

Although these numbers are not large, FRA does not know whether all collision reports have been submitted, as required, because it had not routinely reviewed the grade crossing collision records maintained by the railroads to ensure compliance with its reporting requirements. FRA did not consistently issue violations and assess civil penalties each time a railroad failed to report a grade crossing collision to its accident reporting system. For example, for the 139 instances of noncompliance with mandatory reporting requirements, FRA issued 57 violations to 8 of the 12 railroads and opted not to issue violations for the other 82 collision reports. The need for FRA to take consistent actions to enforce mandatory reporting requirements is an area that calls for additional measures. Further, FRA should issue a violation every time a railroad does not report a grade crossing collision in accordance with Federal requirements. A violation notice triggers the assessment of civil penalties, and railroads that repeatedly fail to report grade crossing collisions appropriately should receive higher penalties.

Railroads are required by Federal law to report every impact, regardless of severity, between a railroad’s on-track equipment and any user of a public or private grade crossing. Although FRA officials told us that the railroads report most grade crossing collisions, as required, our audit work continues to identify areas where this did not occur. As a result, there are steps that FRA can take to improve safety. Specifically, we found that FRA’s oversight for grade crossing safety did not include periodic reviews of railroads’ collision records to ensure the railroads had complied with FRA’s mandatory reporting requirements. Without such an oversight activity, FRA can not ensure that the 15,416 grade crossing collisions the railroads reported from 2001 through 2005 represent all the collisions that occurred during those years. In addition, FRA’s oversight does not include testing random samples of railroads’ grade crossing collision reports to determine whether the information is accurate, timely, and complete. Under Federal safety regulations, the railroads are required to report each collision to FRA within 30 days of the end of the month in which the collision occurred. For instance, a grade crossing collision that occurred on any day in March should be reported to FRA by April 30.