Federal Railroad Administration November 9, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On February 16, 2015, a derailment occurred in West Virginia due to a broken rail that resulted from an internal rail defect, specifically a vertical split head (VSH). Although rail flaw detection equipment had indicated rail flaw conditions at the location of the failure in December 2014 and January 2015, the operator of the equipment failed to carry out an on-ground examination of the defect. The operator later claimed that he believed the reading on the monitor was a false-positive due to rail head surface conditions. FRA believes that if the operator better understood the indications for various rail flaw conditions, including the rough rail surface conditions he was to look for and properly identified the rail flaw indications, the operator would have reported the defect to the track owner. Upon reporting, the track owner would have been alerted to its duty under the Track Safety Standards (49 CFR part 213) to take remedial action (either repair or replacement of the rail or reduction of the maximum authorized train speed over the rail to the specified level). Had the track owner then taken proper remedial action, that action may have prevented the broken rail and the derailment. In response, FRA is issuing this Safety Advisory No. 2015-05 to remind track owners (typically railroads), their track maintenance personnel, and their rail flaw detection equipment operators of the importance of complying with their rail management programs and engineering procedures that address rail with rail head surface conditions while performing rail flaw inspections and track inspections generally. This is particularly vital on track carrying passengers and hazardous materials due to the catastrophic consequences that may result from a derailment. This Safety Advisory also contains recommendations to track owners to ensure their rail flaw detection equipment operators are properly trained and exercise due diligence when a rail head surface condition interferes with a valid rail inspection.