Locomotive Image and Audio Recording Devices for Passenger Trains Final Rule
The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act), codified at 49 U.S.C. 20168, requires FRA (as the Secretary (Secretary) of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) delegate) to promulgate regulations requiring each railroad carrier that provides regularly scheduled intercity or commuter rail passenger transportation to the public to install inward- and outward-facing image recording devices in all lead passenger train locomotives. In light of the FAST Act mandate, relevant National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommendations, discussions of the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC) Recording Devices Working Group, accident history, and railroad safety violations that FRA had investigated, FRA has issued a final rule which requires inward- and outward-facing locomotive image recording devices (cameras) be installed on all lead locomotives used in intercity or commuter passenger rail service. These devices must record whenever the lead locomotive is moving at any train speed as well as record and retain at least the last 12 hours of recorded footage in a certified crashworthy event recorder memory module, or on an alternative, remote storage system that provides at least equivalent data protections as provided by the module and has been approved by FRA.
Furthermore, any data recorded by a locomotive image recording device, or a voluntarily installed audio recording device, from an accident/incident reportable to FRA must be retained by the railroad for one year after the date of the accident/incident for analysis by FRA or other Federal agencies. If requested, the railroad must provide the image and/or audio data in a format readable by FRA or other Federal agencies, or make available any platform, software, media device, etc., that is required to play back the image and/or audio data. The requirements of the final rule do not require image and/or audio recording devices be installed in freight locomotives.
The final rule requires that within four years of its publication, each lead locomotive used in intercity, or commuter passenger rail service must be equipped with compliant inward- and outward-facing image recording systems. The recordings from inward- and outward-facing locomotive cameras required by the rule will assist FRA in investigating railroad accidents/incidents as well as violations of Federal railroad safety laws and regulations. In post-accident/incident analysis, locomotive camera footage will provide investigators with potentially critical information that cannot be obtained from other sources, including locomotive event recorders.
For instance, while locomotive event recorders provide information on data elements including locomotive speed and the amount and time of the locomotive’s brake application, locomotive camera recordings may be particularly useful in accidents arising from human factor causes, as image data can show investigators what the train crew was doing in the locomotive from a perspective that event recorders cannot provide. Therefore, together with locomotive event recorders, locomotive cameras will provide inspectors with a comprehensive perspective of what was occurring inside and outside of the locomotive immediately before an accident. FRA anticipates that this will help the agency better understand the cause(s) of accidents involving intercity passenger or commuter trains, which can then be used to inform future agency actions to help prevent future accidents.
Passenger locomotive image recordings may also be used by passenger railroads themselves to investigate FRA reportable accidents/incidents, ensure employee compliance with relevant railroad safety rules and regulations, as well as assist a railroad with performing Federally-mandated operational testing. Passenger locomotive cameras may also be used by railroads to fulfill security functions, such as monitoring locomotives for unauthorized occupants or trespassers or to assist law enforcement investigations of criminal incidents or acts of terrorism.
The video recordings made by locomotive cameras and retained by the railroads may allow them to identify persons occupying the locomotive cab (or in some instances persons located outside the locomotive cab) by facial or other physical features, which is considered Personally Identifiable Information (PII) that FRA may gather during investigations about such persons or during investigations into rail accidents/incidents or violations of Federal railroad safety laws. This privacy impact assessment (PIA) is therefore necessary to provide information regarding the final rule’s requirement that inward- and outward-facing image recording devices be equipped on all lead passenger locomotives and to determine why and how PII will be stored and used, thereby fulfilling the requirements of Section 552 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2005 (codified at 42 U.S.C. 2000ee-2). This PIA is available in the public docket for the final rule in the rulemaking docket (Docket No. FRA 2016-0036) and on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) privacy Web site at www.dot.gov/privacy.