Authors: SOFA Working Group

Date of Publication:  October 1999

Sponsoring Agency:  U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration, Office of Research and Development; Association of American Railroads; American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association; United Transportation Union; Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers

Report No: DOT/FRA/ORD-00/04

Abstract:

On February 1998, a Switching Operations Fatalities Analysis (SOFA) Working Group, with representatives from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Association of American Railroads, United Transportation Union, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association, was formed at the request of the FRA to review recent fatal incidents and develop recommendations for reducing fatalities in switching operations. Initial efforts of this Working Group have been sponsored by the Office of Safety at the FRA and supported by human factors expertise from the FRA Office of Research and Development, and the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center. Working Group membership and affiliations are given in Appendix B.

The Working Group developed a codified database of standardized information, referred to as the “SOFA Matrix” from the wide range of information in the 76 FRA fatal accident case files between January 1992 and July of 1998. In addition the group reviewed very limited data obtained from FRA files concerning FEs (employee fatalities) from 1975 to 1991 and participated in a series of systematic exercises designed to tap the extensive expertise acquired by the Working Group during their review and analysis of the FEs. This database and the expertise capturing exercises were then used to generate trends or patterns in the data for a more comprehensive understanding of the fatalities they were investigating, and became the foundation for the analysis and recommendations in the report provided here. The small number of FEs and diversity of their circumstances precluded formal statistical analysis. However, based on the objective evidence of likely contributing factors a number of findings and a series of recommendations were developed. These recommendations include actions to improve both the safety of railroad switching operations and the quality of data collected on fatalities in switching operations.
 

No. of Pages:  131