Railroads require safer data recorders to aid accident investigations

Crash data recorders on trains are being improved to capture additional information and better safeguard locomotive event data for use in accident investigations under a recently issued Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) ruling.Under the ruling event recorders will be hardened to prevent the loss of data from exposure to fire, impact shock, fluid immersion and other potential train accident damage. Some of the new data the FRA rules requires includes : horn activation; cruise control functions; and, train control operating directives sent to the engineer’s onboard display. Locomotive event recorders currently capture information including train speed, use of automatic air brakes, throttle position and cab signal indications.Under the rule, railroads have four years to replace event recorders that use magnetic tape with updated hardened models . Hardened models will use electronic memory models and this “black box” model will record more types of information than the older models, according to the FRA."We are making sure that investigators have more and better information available when working to find the cause of an accident," FRA Administrator Joseph H. Boardman says. "The more we can learn from train accidents, the more we can prevent them from occurring."The FRA’s new rule supporting FRA’s new National Rail Safety Action Plan to improve safety across the nation’s railroad system and addresses six outstanding rail safety recommendations made by the National Transportation Safety Board resulting from several previous major accident investigations requires railroads to keep data stored on event recorders involved in accidents for one year, a significant increase from the current 30-day requirement. This will allow federal accident investigators greater flexibility in reviewing data, even if no immediate accident investigation is undertaken. –