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(Showing Agreement, Certification and Full Certification Status)

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*Included is an ICG railroad commuter train on January 26, 1978 which resulted in 558 non-fatal casualties.

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FIGURE L. FATAL AND NON-FATAL CASUALTIES BY ACCIDENT/INCIDENT,

1976-1978

Appendix C

Convention Floor Resolution No. 14

Resolution Supporting S. 934

to Amend the Railroad Safety Act of 1970

WHEREAS, The Railroad Safety Act of 1970 was adopted in response to a growing number of rail accidents throughout the Nation; and

WHEREAS, The Act granted authority to the Secretary of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration to promulgate and enforce uniform rail safety standards; and

WHEREAS, These Federal rules preempt State regulations, except. in very limited circumstances; and

WHEREAS, The national safety act of 1970 has not succeeded in assuring safe operating conditions on rail tracks and roadbeds throughout the Nation; rather the national railroad safety situation has deteriorated substantially since 1970; and

WHEREAS, There have been many catastrophes, including the Waverly, Termessee, catastrophe of February 1978, in which 16 persons died; and

WHEREAS, The Federal Railroad Safety Act of 1970 has certain provisions contemplating State participation in investigation and enforcement of railroad safety standards; but these provisions and the regulations adopted with respect to them have not proven to facilitate effective State participation and have not resulted in sufficiently effective enforcement of Federal safety standards and programs, and in fact have impaired State standards and programs; and

WHEREAS, The number of derailments and instances of evacuation have steadily increased; and

WHEREAS, The Tennessee Congressional Delegation has caused to be introduced in the United States Senate S. 934 to amend the Railroad Safety Act of 1970 in order to improve enforcement of Federal railroad safety standards by granting State regulatory agencies the authority to impose penalties and to seek immediate injunctive relief in U.S. District Court when railroad safety laws have been violated; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, By the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, assembled in its Ninety-first Annual Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, that the United States Congress amend the Railroad Safety Act by adoption of S. 934 to facilitate more effective enforcement of Federal and State standards and programs; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be sent to the President of the United States, governors, each Member of Congress, and to members of the news media.

Sponsored by the Tennessee Public Service Commission

Adopted December 5, 1979

Reported NARUC Bulletin No. 52-1979, pp. 20-21

Mr. FLORIO. Are you talking about all State commissions or just certified ones?

Mr. RODGERS. Just those participating in the program. You can participate by certification or agreement. Approximately 30 States are now participating, and that is reflected in a chart attached to our testimony. As I say, I think this would encourage further State participation.

You see, the Federal railroad safety program is quite similar to the Federal/State partnership established in the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968, in which you have virtually every State commission participating. But after 10 years of effort, we have only 30 States participating in the Federal railroad safety program. The other amendment, we think, would make for a better utilization of State manpower. While the 1970 act has a pretty good program for Federal/State participation or State participation, it only applies to State regulations adopted under the 1970 act. When Congress adopted the 1970 act, it left standing the old safety laws which were not rolled in.

Also, we have had new safety laws since that time. We think that the States participating under the 1970 act should be permitted to enforce Federal safety standards under both the old acts and the new acts which would make for better utilization of State

manpower.

We do not think it makes any sense to have State inspectors on the scene, but are unable to check for other safety violations while they are there.

Mr. FLORIO. What were the types of things that would be encompassed under that broader scope?

Mr. RODGERS. That is set forth in footnote 2 of our testimony on page 5. It would be the Safety Appliance Acts, the Ash Pan Acts, the Signal Inspection Act, and the Hours of Service Acts. The

substantive safety law, the 1970 act, is the Hazardous Material Transportation Act, and this would give a better State enforcement program to that, as well.

Mr. FLORIO. As you, I think, heard this morning, the committee is sympathetic to expanding the opportunity to having more safety personnel, and certainly the State is a very good reservoir for drawing on these people. Some of the criticisms I have heard over the years, in my own State and others, is that State inspectors are difficult to encourage to meet the standards because the suggestion is that Federal standards are too high.

In fact, the Federal people say they are not as enthused as they could be about State regulatory agencies assuming the responsibilities they have because they maintain the personnel are not sufficiently qualified. In fact, many of the regulatory agencies, my own State being one of them, assume a prime purpose of something other than railroads. They are more into regulatory authority in terms of gas prices.

The railroad aspect is a very small proportion; therefore, the expertise that has been developed is not as great as it could be. You heard this morning, that the authorization for this program is down. That is, the requested authorization is down from the previous years by a substantial amount, it is $2 million down from $3.5 million.

You have also heard one of the witnesses state there was money left over from last year. Yet, at the same time some of the States are not able to hire State inspectors because they haven't got the

resources.

Do you have any overall suggestions as to how this program can be modified, if in fact it should be modified, to encourage the States to do more of this so they can move to the position of the Federal authorities in terms of taking responsbility for State inspections? Mr. RODGERS. The Federal qualifications are quite high. In fact, we understand the FRA has trouble recruiting people with the kind of specifications they have. Of course, one of the NARUC's complaints of the last 10 years is that the Federal qualifications are really too high, because by setting the qualifications high, you can certainly cut out a lot of people.

It is a little bit like saying only doctors can administer first aid. If you had a rule saying only doctors could administer first aid, that would mean first aid would be a great deal better administered than it is. But the truth is a lot of people would die in the meantime since there would be so few people to provide first aid.

So we think, frankly, the FRA should take a look, because if the qualifications are a bit too high, it will limit this very serious safety battle nationally. It would be like the United States turning away Allied Forces during World War II because we didn't think they were qualified to help us.

We think the qualifications should be looked at carefully. Some of the State commissions have had a problem in getting people who meet these qualfications and a problem in paying an appropriate salary. In the competition of the State salary structure, there is a pecking order, and of course, railroad safety inspectors cannot make more than other officials higher up in other areas.

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