FRA Guide for Preparing Accidents/Incidents Reports U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Railroad Administration _____________________________________________________________ Office of Safety ______________________________________________________________ DOT/FRA/RRS-22 Effective: January 1997 FRA Guide for Preparing Accident/Incident Reports CONTENTS Introduction Chapter 1 Overview of Accident/Incident Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements Chapter 2 Definitions Chapter 3 Form FRA F 6180.55 - Railroad Injury and Illness Summary Chapter 4 Form FRA F 6180.98 - Railroad Employee Injury and/or Illness Record Chapter 5 Form FRA F 6180.97 - Initial Rail Equipment Accident/Incident Record Chapter 6 Form FRA F 6180.55a - Railroad Injury and Illness Summary (Continuation Sheet) Chapter 7 Form FRA F 6180.54 - Rail Equipment Accident/Incident Report Chapter 8 Form FRA F 6180.81 - Employee Human Factor Attachment Chapter 9 Form FRA F 6180.78 - Notice to Railroad Employee Involved in Rail Equipment Accident/Incident Attributed to Employee Human Factor Employee Statement Supplementing Railroad Accident Report Chapter 10 Form FRA F 6180.57 - Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Accident/Incident Report Chapter 11 Form FRA F 6180.56 - Annual Railroad Report of Employee Hours and Casualties by State APPENDICES Appendix A Railroad Codes Appendix B State Codes Appendix C Train Accident Cause Codes Appendix D Employee Job Codes FRA Guide for Preparing Accident/Incident Reports CONTENTS - Continued Appendix E Injury and Illness Codes Appendix F Circumstance Codes Appendix G FRA Regional Offices and Headquarters Appendix H Forms Appendix I Model Internal Control Plans, including Model Statement of Policy against Harassment and Intimidation and Model Complaint Procedures FRA Guide for Preparing Accident/Incident Reports INTRODUCTION A railroad is required by Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) regulations at Title 49, Part 225 of the Code of Federal Regulations to use the current FRA Guide for Preparing Accident/Incident Reports (“Guide” or “reporting guide”) when preparing its monthly report. The instructions and interpretations contained in this publication are provided to assist railroads in meeting this obligation. On June 18, November 22, November 29, and December 23, 1996, FRA published in the Federal Register various final rule amendments to the accident reporting regulations. See 61 Fed. Reg. 30940, 61 Fed. Reg. 59368, 61 Fed. Reg. 60632, and 61 Fed. Reg. 67477, respectively. These revisions, which become effective on January 1, 1997, were made for the following principal reasons: ! To increase confidence that all qualifying events and information are being accurately reported. ! To raise employee awareness concerning hazards that may exist in the work environment and to provide opportunities for greater participation by workers in the reporting process. ! To simplify recordkeeping and filing requirements through alternative methods for maintaining records and filing reports. ! To collect additional information about accidents/incidents necessary for safety and regulatory analysis. ! To provide further clarification of definitions and requirements, with the goal of increasing uniformity and consistency of reporting among railroads. The definition of what constitutes a reportable accident/incident has remained largely unchanged since its adoption in 1975. Similarly, the various codes found on the report forms and contained in the appendices have remained essentially unchanged as a result of the 1996 revisions, with one exception. Prior to 1997, railroads recorded an "occurrence" code for each injury or illness reported on Form FRA F 6180.55a. This code was intended to provide general information about the activities the affected person was engaged in at the time of the accident/incident. Although 16 pages of codes were contained in the previous Guide, they were often inadequate for describing key information associated with the event. This caused a large number of cases to be recorded with codes that represented "other" or "miscellaneous." The "occurrence" codes previously found in Appendix F have been replaced with a new set of "circumstance" codes. These, along with a narrative description, will provide a better understanding of the activity, location, tools, causes, and other factors associated with injuries and illnesses. 1 INTRODUCTION FRA Guide for Preparing Accident/Incident Reports INTRODUCTION - Continued The Guide is organized into sections corresponding to the different reporting requirements and retains the same general format as the previous edition. New sections have been added that describe the requirements for recording accountable accidents/incidents. Questions and answers to commonly asked reporting questions have been added to the sections to which they pertain. The instructions in the Guide are limited to issues associated with reporting and recordkeeping. Railroads may now transmit their monthly reports to the FRA by alternative means, e.g., magnetic media and electronically via telephone lines. The technical information needed for doing this is not described in the Guide, since it is not necessary for reporting decisions. A separate manual is available upon request that contains the specifications for doing this and is titled Guidelines for Submitting Accident/Incident Reports by Alternative Methods. To assist railroads in maintaining and submitting records and reports required by this rule, the FRA developed the software package Accident/Incident Report Generator (AIRG) for the personal computer (PC) that runs in a Windows-based environment. See 61 Fed. Reg. 59485 (Nov. 22, 1996). The FRA will provide you with a registered copy of this software free of charge upon request by the reporting officer. Please note that in the Guide the ordinary convention on placement of quotation marks is not followed. In order to avoid confusion about what should be entered in a block on a form, quotation marks are placed inside periods and commas in a sentence. Finally, the FRA thanks all those individuals and organizations that have provided assistance and guidance in drafting the regulation and revising the reporting guide. 2 INTRODUCTION FRA Guide for Preparing Accident/Incident Reports CHAPTER 1 Overview of Railroad Accident/Incident Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements A. GENERAL The Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) regulations on reporting railroad accidents/incidents are found primarily in Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 225 (49 CFR Part 225). Purpose. The purpose of the regulations in Part 225 is to provide FRA with accurate information concerning the hazards and risks that exist on the Nation's railroads. See 49 CFR § 225.1.1 FRA needs this information to effectively carry out its regulatory and enforcement responsibilities under the Federal railroad safety statutes.2 FRA also uses this information for determining comparative trends of railroad safety and to develop hazard elimination and risk reduction programs that focus on preventing railroad injuries and accidents. Issuance of these regulations preempts States from prescribing accident/incident reporting requirements. Any State may, however, require railroads to submit to it copies of reports filed with FRA under Part 225 for accidents/incidents that occur in that State. Applicability. Except as discussed under the heading “Partial relief to certain small railroads,” these FRA accident/incident reporting requirements apply to all railroads except-- 1. A railroad that operates freight trains only on track inside an installation which is not part of the general railroad system of transportation or that owns no track except for track that is inside an installation that is not part of the general railroad system of transportation and used for freight operations. 2. Rail mass transit operations in an urban area that are not connected with the general railroad system of transportation. 3. A railroad that exclusively hauls passengers inside an installation that is insular or that owns no track except for track used exclusively for the hauling of passengers inside an installation that is insular. An operation is not considered insular if one or more of the following exists on its line: 1 For brevity, further references in the Guide to sections in 49 CFR Part 225 will omit “49 CFR” and include only the section, e.g., § 225.9. 2 Title 49, United States Code (U.S.C.) Chapters 51, 201-213. Accident/Incident Reporting and Chapter 1 - Page 1 Recordkeeping Requirements FRA Guide for Preparing Accident/Incident Reports Accident/Incident Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements - Continued a. A public highway-rail grade crossing that is in use; b. An at-grade rail crossing that is in use; c. A bridge over a public road or waters used for commercial navigation; or d. A common corridor with a railroad, i.e., its operations are within 30 feet of those of any railroad. See § 225.3. Part 225 covers any and all activities of a railroad related to the performance of its rail transportation business. “Railroad transportation” means any form of non-highway ground transportation that run on rails or electro-magnetic guideways, including (1) commuter or other short-haul railroad passenger service in a metropolitan or suburban area, as well as any commuter railroad service that was operated by the Consolidated Rail Corporation as of January 1, 1979, and (2) high speed ground transportation systems that connect metropolitan areas, without regard to whether they