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U.S. railroads continued to do a better job of preventing accidents and incidents through 2005’s first 10 months. The roads’ train accident rate decreased 11.3 percent compared with the same 2004 period, according to preliminary Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) data. The rate (per million train miles) has dropped in all nine FRA reports issued on 2005 safety statistics. Train accidents totaling 2,565 declined 7.8 percent.

Accidents caused by human factors, equipment defects and signal problems fell 17.5 percent, 20.6 percent and 17.1 percent, respectively, compared with 2004’s first 10 months. The yard accident rate decreased 15.7 percent.

In addition, U.S. roads’ employee casualty rate and grade crossing incident rate dropped 13.9 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively, compared with the same 2004 period. Both rates are on pace to be the railroads’ lowest-ever on an annual basis.