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On Friday, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced it issued a safety advisory to remind railroads, contractors and rail bridge workers about safety practices designed to prevent accidents and casualties.

FRA regulations require that scaffolding standards be met and that railroads and rail contractors provide, and their employees use, certain fall protection and personal protective equipment for rail bridge work, including head, foot, eye, and face equipment.

“The safety advisory focuses attention on the unsafe workplace behavior preliminarily found to be contributing factors in two incidents occurring this year during which workers fell from bridges, resulting in one fatality,” FRA officials said in an advisory announcement. “In 2008, another worker fell under similar circumstances. In each of these three incidents, the bridge worker was not using a personal fall arrest system and fell when stepping on an unsecured walkway or platform grating.”

The responsible railroads, contractors and subcontractors also did not erect a safety net system, they said.

Meanwhile, the FRA also announced on Friday that it issued a final rule that aims to help protect railroad construction workers from passing trains. The rule amends existing roadway worker protection regulations to require that railroads adopt safety procedures to protect workers from train or other rail equipment movements on adjacent tracks.

“The new safety procedures generally require all affected work and equipment movements to stop, and for each roadway worker to occupy a predetermined safe place upon receiving a notification or warning when there is an approaching train or other on-track equipment movement on an adjacent track,” FRA officials said. “Track safety job briefings will be expanded to include information about the new rule.”