The UTU on April 3 signed onto its third Confidential Close Calls Reporting System pilot project -- this one with New Jersey Transit (NJT).
Also signing the agreement with NJT was the American Train Dispatchers Association and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.
Sponsored by the Federal Railroad Administration, and administered by DOTs Bureau of Transportation Statistics (for the purpose of compiling data), this pilot project permits an employee to make a confidential report of safety concerns, and even violations of operating rules, while receiving immunity from sanction by the employer and the FRA.
Thus, otherwise unreported or underreported information on unsafe events becomes available for study by an on-property peer review team of labor, management and FRA representatives.
The analysis of this data can then be used to recommend corrective action, which might include new or improved training methods, changes in the physical plant, changes in existing federal safety laws or regulations, or changes in carrier operating rules.
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics ensures that the identity of those reporting close calls, as part of the project, remains confidential, including any information as to date or location of the event that could otherwise lead to identification of employees making the report.
The DOT bureau operates under a federal statute that assures protection of the accumulated data from legal discovery, freedom of information requests, and even demands by other federal agencies to view the data.
A close call is defined by the FRA as "a situation in which an ongoing sequence of events was stopped from developing further, preventing the occurrence of potentially serious safety-related consequences. Personal injuries and/or reportable train accidents of any kind do not fall in the category of a close call."
Examples of close calls include running through a yard switch that does not result in a train accident, improper blocking, and a train in non-signal territory that proceeds beyond its authority.
The UTU is participating in similar pilot projects already in place on Union Pacific in North Platte, Neb., and Canadian Pacific in Portage, Wisc. The UP project just celebrated its second year anniversary, and the CP project is one-year old.
Although the Confidential Close Calls Reporting System is totally voluntary, the participation and acceptance by the covered employees has been excellent at these two locations, according to UTU officers monitoring the projects.
A fourth pilot project, to be implemented on a portion of Amtraks Northeast Corridor, is under discussion with Amtrak, labor and the FRA.
"These pilot projects are working to make the rail work environment safer," said UTU National Legislative Director James Stem, who has worked with the FRA in establishing the three pilot projects in which the UTU participates. "The experience so far in North Platte and Portage validate that a non-punitive reporting system produces safety data that could not otherwise be obtained."
UTU International Vice President J.R. "Jim" Cumby, who assisted in establishing the pilot project on NJT, said "the pilot projects build on 20 years experience in the airline industry and on foreign railroads that safety improves when close calls can be reported voluntarily, confidentially and discipline free."
Cumby praised the efforts of NJT General Chairpersons Pat Reilly (conductors, GO 610) and Mark Woodson (yardmasters, GO 340) "in making this pilot project happen."
