NTSB's Homendy commends FRA for rule requiring breathing equipment on hazmat trains

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy commended a newly proposed rule that would provide emergency escape breathing equipment for crew members on freight trains carrying hazardous materials.

The Federal Railroad Administration last month proposed a rule to require that railroads provide an appropriate atmosphere-supplying emergency escape breathing apparatus to every train crew member and certain other employees while they are occupying a locomotive cab of a freight train transporting a hazardous material that would pose an inhalation hazard in the event of release during an accident.

The NTSB recommended such a rule be adopted after it investigated a 2005 rail accident in which the train engineer and eight other people died from chlorine gas inhalation.

After the accident, Congress mandated the FRA to require railroads to provide crews with emergency breathing equipment in 2008, and the agency issued a notice of proposed rulemaking in 2010. But no rule was ever issued.

In 2017, the NTSB closed the recommendation, categorizing FRA's lack of action as an "unacceptable response," NTSB officials said in a press release.

"I'm encouraged by FRA’s recent action under the leadership of Administrator Amit Bose to protect rail workers, all of whom deserve to be safe on the job," said Homendy. "The FRA has taken a significant step toward meeting this lifesaving NTSB recommendation and we hope the rulemaking process moves swiftly."

Better rail worker safety is one of the NTSB's "most wanted" transportation safety improvements.