Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) solicited public feedback on possible federal safety regulations that could be repealed or modified to achieve “meaningful burden reduction while continuing to meet statutory obligations and ensure the safety of the U.S. transportation system.”
Unsurprisingly, Class I railroads through the Association of American Railroads (AAR) jumped at the chance to put their profit-hungry agenda ahead of the safety of its workers and the general public by advocating to remove 80 time-tested safety rules from the books.
Among those 80 safety rules is are requirements that railroads inspect trains at the Mexican border before they enter the United States. These are important mechanical and brake inspections that keep our train crews and the general public safe. AAR, however, has asked DOT to repeal those requirements. Instead, the AAR wants to rely on safety inspections performed in Mexico without standards specifying if the workers from Mexico are properly trained, how the inspections are performed, or how far the train will travel in our country after being inspected in a foreign country. In an era of ever-increasing train length, a mechanical failure or brake failure could lead to a runaway train, serious derailment, hazardous materials spill, or other catastrophe.
“Mechanical and brake inspections at the southern border are important safeguards to keep our railroads and our country safe,” BLET National President Mark Wallace said. “Eliminating those inspections not only puts our members and our citizens at unnecessary risk, but it also takes away work traditionally performed by American railroaders.”
The BLET will continue to examine additional AAR waiver requests in future issues of the Weekly Recap. Read Part 1 of the series here.