On September 27, 2017 four senators and two congressional representatives announced their intention to introduce legislation that would "require the US Department of Transportation (DOT) to implement the proposed rule mandating sleep apnea testing and treatment for rail operators and commercial truck drivers..."
We appreciate the effort, but the truth is that there is no proposed rule to be implemented.
After years of studying these issues and the attendant safety risks, FRA finally issued an ANPRM in March, 2016. Three public hearings, 700+ comments in the docket, and seventeen months later, FRA joined FMCSA in withdrawing from the rulemaking process.
The public release of NTSB's findings regarding the train-bumping block collisions in Hoboken, New Jersey, and Atlantic Terminal, Brooklyn, New York, reveals that in each instance, the locomotive engineers suffered from severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). This finding makes it clear that testing and treatment of railroad employees for OSA is a matter of national urgency. Time, when it comes to preventing the next "accident," is always of the essence:
The risk to public safety from delayed action is real:
We can deal with this problem rapidly and efficiently, while preserving the "due process" that railroads and railroad employees are entitled to when regulation is required in the interest of public safety.
FRA can immediately require railroads, by emergency order, to apply Medical Fitness-for-Duty Standards and protocols established by FMCSA for the testing, evaluation, and treatment of train operating employees for obstructive sleep apnea.
FRA's can and should include reporting requirements for railroads to provide monthly updates on numbers and classifications of employees tested; results of those tests; numbers referred for further evaluation and treatment; and the numbers remaining to be tested.
FRA can review those results, and correlate those results with the frequency of accidents that are generally associated with human factors to a)judge the impacts and adequacy of the testing over time and b)improve upon testing protocols when fashioning a permanent regulation to replace the temporary emergency order.
William Keppen; Bkeppen@msn.com
Joe Pasanello; jcpasa@comcast.net
DM Schanoes; dmschanoes@ten90solutions.com
October 3, 2017
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