CONTACT: Armando Rendón September 3, 1997 CPUC-088
415-703-1366

CPUC Identifies Three Key Rail Hazard Sites;

Issues New Rules To Avert Accidents

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) today issued beefed-up rules to address growing public concern about railroad safety and, in particular, to avert more accidents at three notorious sites: the Dunsmuir grade in Shasta County and the Cajon Pass grade at San Bernardino and the Cima grade near Kelso, both in San Bernardino County. The rules suggest one common denominator of rail hazards: the most serious accidents occur where grades (inclines) and rail curves meet.

Citing the need for California to adopt additional measures where federal law does not adequately address local hazard sites and interstate commerce is not unduly burdened, the Commission ordered additional backup braking systems and other safety measures for these and certain other sites.

CPUC staff used two methods to identify local safety hazard sites. The first locates areas with a high incidence of derailments. The second method looks at all main line track and targets areas where the railroad has had to impose unique restrictions because conditions there make operating a train extremely difficult.

The rules adopted today are prompted by such recent accidents as the collision by a runaway train with another at Cajon Pass in December 1994, injuring two crew members and causing $4 million in damage; a fatal derailment at Cajon Pass that caused two crew members' deaths and released a toxic cloud that injured 20 emergency personnel; and, just last January, the derailment at a speed of more than 70 mph of a train normally limited to 20 miles per hour that lost its brakes on the Cima grade near Kelso.

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Derailments and toxic spills at Dunsmuir and Seacliff in July 1991 and a fatal accident on the Cajon Pass line in May 1989 were disastrous to the environment and economies of those areas.

The rules are specifically intended to eliminate or reduce the hazardous nature of conditions at the identified sites. Although they follow federal regulations, most of the rules adopted today complement federal law.

Several parties resisted CPUC assertion of jurisdiction, claiming that the federal government has preemptive authority in railroad safety. The Commission, in issuing its rules, pointed out that even where federal regulations exist, the state may still impose requirements that deal with local safety hazards and do not contradict federal law.

Today's order cites a specific instance in which preventive measures could have averted two serious derailments. In early 1992, staff proposed requiring two-way end-of-train braking devices which are operated electronically from the locomotive. These can and do prevent brake failure, the order states. Comment periods on the proposal became extended, revisions were made, negotiations with the railroads failed, and as of April 1994, the proceeding was at a standstill.

Eight months later, a Santa Fe freight train derailed at Cajon Pass, causing $4 million in damage and injuring two crew members. Santa Fe voluntarily offered to install the devices.

Nevertheless, in February 1996, a Santa Fe train on the same grade derailed, taking two crew members' lives and causing about $250 million damage and estimated economic loss. The train was equipped with a two-way device but it was not armed, and, therefore, the engineer could not use it to stop the train.

Specifically, the rules cover 19 sites identified as hazardous. The railroads that move freight over these lines are given a certain number of days to install fully functioning two-way end-of-train telemetry devices on the rear of the train.

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The Commission is also adopting requirements for dynamic brakes. The Federal Railroad Administration has a proceeding going on which may address the use of dynamic brakes but has yet to adopt new rules for their use. Thus, the CPUC is implementing its own regulations. Some sites entail the study of the effects of installing dynamic brakes as a preventive measure.

Dynamic brakes provide an alternative to the "retainer" brakes on most trains. With the retainer system, a train has to stop before starting down a grade, have a crew member adjust the retaining valve on each car, then after the train gets to the bottom of the grade, have the crew member repeat the operation. Typically this entails a two mile hike for the train crew. With dynamic braking, a trip is virtually uninterrupted. Crews need only stop the train prior to the grade and attach a helper engine, do an air test and proceed.

The sites identified by the CPUC were submitted to three different statistical methods to make sure that the high incidence of accidents occurring at the site might not have happened through chance. For example, at Site No. 1, the Southern Pacific Coast Line (MP 235 to 249), 27 percent of the line's accidents occur there even though only 3 percent of the line's main track makes up the area. Statistically, the likelihood of these many accidents occurring at this site randomly is less than 1 in a million. The statistical methods also confirm the finding that the greater the grade and curve of track, the greater the hazard.

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