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Yesterday, the Federal Railroad Administration announced it issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) designed to improve the crashworthiness of new and rebuilt freight locomotives to increase workers' safety.

The proposed rule — which would require certain safety enhancements to ensure a locomotive's structural integrity during an accident or collision — augments industry standards that were implemented in 1989.

The FRA proposes that the standards call for anti-climbing features, collision posts, short-hood structures, under-frame structural improvements and strengthened external fuel tanks to prevent ruptures. The administration also proposes that locomotive cab interiors include emergency egress and lighting, and reconfigured controls.

The rule would require locomotives to withstand a frontal impact with an object designed to simulate a heavy highway vehicle and an oblique impact with an object designed to simulate a misaligned intermodal container on a train traveling on adjacent track.

"We have spent considerable resources researching and testing the applicability of new technology," said FRA acting Administrator Betty Monro in a prepared statement. "It exists, it works and we should use it to protect the lives of our railroad workers."

The Railroad Safety Advisory Committee — comprising representatives from the FRA, railroads, rail labor unions and rail industry suppliers — recommended the changes proposed by the NPRM. The FRA is accepting comments on the proposed rule until Jan. 3.