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It didn't take the Federal Railroad Administration long to react to the switch safety implications of last week's Norfolk Southern Railway train accident in Graniteville, S.C., which killed nine people, including the locomotive engineer. Today, the administration announced it will issue a safety advisory to all U.S. railroads calling for improved switch monitoring procedures because of the NS accident and a number of other recent derailments that might have been caused by switches left in the wrong position.

During its ongoing investigation of the NS accident, the National Transportation Safety Board determined that a misaligned switch might have been one of the factors that caused a train to divert from a mainline onto a siding and collide with a parked locomotive.

The advisory stipulates that railroads should document when a manually operated switch in non-signaled territory is changed from main track to a siding, and returned to the normal main track position. Railroads also should communicate switching actions to all crew members and the train dispatcher.

FRA inspectors will monitor railroads’ adoption of the advisory and help determine if additional measures are needed.