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TABLE 31.-CASUALTIES IN RAILROAD ACCIDENTS TO EMPLOYEES ON DUTY, 1965-Continued

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TABLE 32. DAMAGE TO EQUIPMENT, TRACK, AND ROADBED FROM TRAIN ACCIDENTS, 1961-66

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Source: Interstate Commerce Commission, Accident Bulletin, Nos. 130, 132, and 134; Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration.

TABLE 33.-Estimated cost of railroad accidents, class I line-haul railroads, 1966

Cost of railroad accidents:

Damage to equipment, track, and roadbed from train accidents-- $98, 960, 779 Cost of clearing wrecks__.

Loss and damage to freight, train accidents__

Injuries to persons--.

Total cost

Man-days of railway workers lost 1,895,958, wage loss at $24.82 per day 1

1

Grand total__.

22, 980, 542 18,645, 000 108, 492, 202

249, 078, 523

47, 050, 094

296, 128, 617

Federal expenditures for railroad safety, fiscal year ended June 30, 1966:

Railroad safety activities___

Locomotive inspection activities___

Total

1 Average daily rate, all railway classes, 1966.

1, 947, 650 1, 310,000

3,257, 650

Source: Interstate Commerce Commission, "Transport Statistics in the United States, 1966; 80th Annual Report of the Interstate Commerce Commission, 1966; Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration; and Railway Age, Mar. 27, 1967, p. 31.

Mr. CHESSER. These organizations mentioned, and the Railway Labor Executives Association, appreciate your allowing me the opportunity to testify on H.R. 16980, introduced by the chairman, Congressman Staggers, and on H.R. 17093, a companion bill, introduced by Congressman McCarthy, of New York.

We are grateful for the recognition, though belated, that such legislation is imperative to assure the safety of the traveling public and of railroad employees.

Incidentally, I would like to commend Congressman Moss, and Senator McGee, who earlier recognized the necessity of such legislation, by introducing measures to provide for already safety laws, which was identified as H.R. 5934, H.R. 5935, S. 526, and S. 527.

While meaningful and effective railway safety legislation will require a number of revisions of the pending bill to which this statement is addressed, and these proposed revisions are discussed fully in the complete text of my statement, railway labor strongly supports the basic thrust of this legislation, because of its longstanding and deep concern over the deplorable safety records of the railroads.

The Department of Transportation has reported that 2,684 human lives were lost, and 25,552 were injured in railroad accidents in the year 1966; 159 employees on duty were killed and 18,195 were injured. There were 6,793 train accidents- -a record for recent years, for which comparable figures are available.

Preliminary figures for 1967 indicate that last year train accidents exceeded the record 1966 levels by about 5 percent, and the first months of 1968 exceeded the same period of 1967 by about 10 percent.

Thus, there is no indication that the transfer of safety responsibility from the Interstate Commerce Commission to the Federal Railroad Administration has yet had any effect in improving railroad safety. The limited legal authority possessed by the Federal Government over railroad safety has made it impossible for this Department to take meaningful action to compel railroads to operate safely.

I want to comment briefly on a release of the Association of American Railroads of which you have the full text before you dated May 8, 1968, claiming the safety record of the railroads is very good and getting better, largely because only 13 railroad passengers died in accidents last year.

I find it extraordinary that an industry where accidents killed 2.458 people, altogether, in 1967, should feature its passenger record of 13 fatalities as indicating a great improvement in its safety record.

Actually, the 1967 passenger fatality figure has very little validity as an indicator of anything beyond the figure itself.

Other statistical measures presented in the Association of American Railroads release of May 8, 1968, also lack validity, especially their attempt to relate employee fatalities to gross ton-miles of freight. A detailed analysis, as I said before, is on your desk.

Existing laws relating to railway safety leave wide gaps, where neither Federal nor State agencies have any authority or control. Furthermore, even where Federal laws do operate, penalties for violations are far below what is needed to deter the railroads from violations when corporate objectives dictate otherwise.

Each of these shortcomings in the existing pattern of Federal legislation is dealt with in the bill before the committee. I shall discuss these

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