Railroad Law Violations

When FRA took enforcement action, it issued 57 violations to 8 of the 12 railroads for not complying with its mandatory reporting requirements for grade crossing collisions and opted not to issue violations for the other 82 collision reports. Specific information about the 139 grade crossing collisions that were not reported in accordance with Federal requirements is discussed below.

From 1999 through 2001, a Class I freight railroad12 did not report 95 grade crossing collisions. These collisions resulted in 2 fatalities and 15 injuries. FRA officials conducted a system-wide review of this railroad’s grade crossing collision reporting process in August 2001, after a Florida transportation official informed FRA of 11 unreported collisions that occurred in 1999. Subsequently, FRA issued violations for 20 of the 95 grade crossing collisions that the railroad had not reported. Because of FRA’s practice of bundling or combining multiple violations into one enforcement case,13 we could not identify the amount of civil penalties assessed and collected that related to grade crossing collision reporting. For the remaining 75 grade crossing collisions, FRA did not issue additional violations or assess civil penalties.

In January 2005, FRA officials conducted another review of the same Class I freight railroad cited above and found an additional 29 grade crossing collisions that the railroad had not reported to FRA’s accident reporting system in 2003 and 2004. These collisions resulted in 2 injuries and no fatalities. FRA issued violations and assessed civil penalties for each of the 29 required collision reports that the railroad had not submitted because it had previously issued violations against this railroad for not complying with mandatory grade crossing reporting requirements. Again, we could not identify the amount of civil penalties the railroad paid because of FRA’s practice of bundling violations.

In 2003, another Class I freight railroad and two smaller railroads did not report five grade crossing collisions in Iowa. These collisions resulted in three injuries. An Iowa transportation official, as a result of reviewing police accident reports, notified the responsible railroads of the omissions. Because these railroads immediately submitted the required grade crossing collision reports to FRA when the discrepancies were identified, no violations were issued for noncompliance with Federal reporting requirements.In 2005, we identified 10 grade crossing collisions that had occurred in Illinois in 2003, but had never been reported to FRA. We identified these unreported collisions by comparing motor vehicle accident reports filed by local police departments to data in FRA’s accident reporting system. After we informed FRA of these unreported grade crossing collisions, it issued violations against seven railroads for not reporting eight grade crossing collisions, as required by Federal law. FRA did not issue violations for the other two collisions.

Further, for one Class I railroad, FRA officials identified problems with the accuracy of injury data in grade crossing reports submitted from January 2005 through July 2006. In November 2006, FRA officials found an unusually low number of injuries reported for grade crossing collisions involving this railroad when the train and/or motor vehicle were traveling in excess of 35 miles per hour—no injuries were reported for 154 collisions. FRA officials concluded that this railroad was not adequately seeking or collecting injury information. Subsequently, FRA issued one safety violation to this railroad for failing to have an adequate procedure for determining the extent of injuries to highway users involved in grade crossing collisions.