A finalized Department of Transportation rule requires railroads to provide first responders with real-time, electronic information about rail hazmat shipments to the primary Public Safety Answering Point (for example, a 911 call center or emergency responder phone app such as the AskRail Mobile App) as soon as the railroad is aware of an accident or incident involving hazardous materials.
“In a hazmat incident, firefighters and first responders arriving on scene need to know what kind of hazardous materials are present so they can protect themselves and their communities,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “This final rule will require railroads to maintain detailed, real-time information about trains carrying hazardous materials – and share this information with local emergency responders when they need it.”
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The final rule requires all railroads to generate, in hard copy and electronic versions, real-time train consist information for shipments containing hazardous materials. Required information includes the quantity and position of the hazardous materials on the train, the train’s origin and destination, emergency response information, and a designated emergency point of contact at the railroad.
“We heard first-hand from firefighters that were responding to the Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine that they and other first responders need hazardous materials train consists as soon as an incident occurs,” said Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration Deputy Administrator Tristan Brown.
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The new rule will ensure firefighters can fully use PHMSA’s 2024 Emergency Response Guidebook (as well as the mobile phone ERG app), which PHMSA recently distributed to nearly 2 million first responders across the nation as part of a quadrennial effort to equip first responders with information on how to respond to each type of hazmat incident.
In addition to the new rule, the Biden-Harris Administration has taken key steps to improve the safety of America’s railways by deploying funding from the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, holding railroads accountable, raising rail safety standards, and supporting first responders and rail workers.
To date, DOT has announced over $2 billion in rail safety infrastructure investments through the law and recently issued final rules to enhance rail safety including:
- A final rule that establishes minimum safety requirements for the size of train crews and generally requires a second crew member on trains.
- A final rule that requires railroads to provide emergency escape breathing apparatuses to train crews and other employees when transporting certain hazardous materials.
- A final rule that requires the installation of locomotive video recording devices on passenger trains.
- A final rule that requires that large freight and passenger railroads systematically identify and evaluate fatigue-related hazards on their system, measures those risks, and then mitigate them.
The final rule is available in the Federal Register.
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