Railway Safety Act

The history of safety in the modem times may be traced back to 1868, when a patent for a barrier safeguard was awarded in the United States [1]. In 1893, the U.S. Congress passed the Railway Safety Act and, in 1912, the cooperative Safety Congress met for the first time in Milwaukee, Wisconsin [1-3]. Today, the field of safety has developed into many areas, including workplace safety, patient safety, robot safety, and software safety. 

The Hazardous Materials Transportation Act of 1975 (HMTA) and the 1990 Hazardous Materials Uniform Safety Act were promulgated to protect the public from risks associated with the movement of potentially dangerous materials on roads, in the air, and on waterways. They do not pertain to the movement of materials within a facility. Anyone who transports or causes to be transported a hazardous material is subject to these regulations, as is anyone associated with the production or modification of containers for hazardous materials. Enforcement of the HMTA is delegated to the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Railway Administration, Federal Aviation Administration, and Research and Special Programs Administration (for enforcement of packaging rules). 

These regulations tidy up a number of existing requirements already in place under other regulations such as the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, the Factories Act 1961 and the Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act 1963. 

The early health and safety laws, the Factories Act 1961 (FA) and the Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act 1963 (OSRP), were aimed at correcting identified wrongs and tended to be very prescriptive in their content (i.e. they laid down how the wrong was to be corrected) and restrictive in their field by applying only to the particular operation, process or premises defined in the Act. Very few of the regulations made under these Acts are still in effect. 

Workmen s Compensation Act - extended to all wage earners within certain wage limits A further consolidating Factories Act The last consolidating Factories Act The Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act UK became a Member State of the European Economic Community and subject to EEC directives The Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act The Single European Act... 

Prior to 1974 the main health and safety Acts were the Factories Act 1961 and the Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act 1963. Both these Acts applied only in the premises defined in them. Similarly, any subordinate legislation made under either of them applied only in the premises covered by the main Act. However, legislation made since the coming into effect of the Health and Safety at Work, etc Act 1974 now covers all employment except domestic service. 

In 1949 the Gower Committee report made recommendations about the health, welfare and safety of employed persons outside the protections of existing legislation. In 1960 an Offices Act was passed. Before it became operative however it was repealed and replaced by the Offices, Shops and Railways Premises Act 1963. This adopted much of the structural content of the Factories Act 1961 but not the regulations, which apply only to factories. 

Relevant statutory provisions. Status of earlier health and safety legislation listed in Schedule 1. Extant provisions of the Factories Act 1961 Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act 1963 and other Acts applicable to the employer s premises/business. 

Further detail is offered in a Code of Practice on Safety Representatives and Safety Committees. The Faaories Act 1961 (sects. 138,139) and the Information for Employees Regulations, 1965 (made under the Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act) detailed information which employers should provide for employees. 

An open-ended question asking what health and safety laws respondents had to observe revealed that the HSW Act, 1974, was generally known about. Thirty per cent (36/121) referred spontaneously to the HSW Act, 1974, and when prompted, an additional 54 per cent (65/121) said that they had heard of this Act. The Factories Act and the Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act were respectively mentioned by just 5 per cent (6/121) of those answering this question. Only 3 per cent (4/121) of respondents were unable to cite any legislation. Many of the responses were vague, such as the following ... 

New r ularions have also been made under the HSW Act, namely the Railways (Safety Case) Reguladons, 1994 (see below), the Railways (Safety Critical Work) Regulations, 1994, and the Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Rail Reguladons, 1996. 

The new arrangements for health and safety which accompanied privatization were referred to by those in the industry as a safety cascade . This describes a system which greatly extends previous notions of self-regulation, by making the infrastructure controllers responsible for overseeing the safety of the operational network under the supervision of HSE . These controllers thus have responsibihties for their own activities under the HSW Act and for the entire operational network under the 1993 Railways Act. The key to this system is the Railway Safety Case (RSC). 

Many safety and health programs are treading water, given the new normal of lean resource restraints. But pointing to fatalities might not be the best evidence. A close look at the BLS data shows more than half of all work-related fatalities in 2010 were due to transportation incidents (39%) and assault and violent acts (18%). Aircraft and water vehicle operations, pedestrian and railway safety, and retail stores prone to violent acts fall outside traditional industrial safety and health programs. 

The Factories Act 1961 and The Office Shops and Railway Premises Act of 1963, while still partly remaining on the Statute Book, for most practical health and safety work can be ignored. However, strangely, the notification to the authorities of premises which come within the definition of these two acts are carried out on Form 9 for factories. Form 10 for construction and OSR 1 for office shop and railway premises. 

Examples include the Agriculture (Safety, Health and Welfare Provisions) Act 1956, The Mines and Quarries Act 1954, The Offices Shops and Railway Premises Act 1963 and The Nuclear Installations Act 1965. 

Notification of New Substances Regulations 1993 822,869 Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act 1963 37 Offshore (Electricity and Noise) Regulations 1997 746 Offshore Safety Act 1992 56... 

Previous legal requirements, such as those under the Factories Act 1961 and Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act 1963 laid down prescriptive or minimum standards on, for instance, the minimum temperature in a workplace, the total number of wash hand basins required according to the number of employees, or the specific safety features of a scaffold. There was no dear-cut duty to actually manage their health and safety activities, however. Moreover, many of these pre-1993 duties are qualified by the term so far as is reasonably practicable, implying a balance between the cost of sacrifice involved on the one hand and the risk to people on the other. On this basis, an employer did not necessarily have to comply if it could be proved to a court that compliance was not reasonably practicable. 

The prindpal objective of a safe place strategy is that of bringing about a reduction in the objective danger to people at work. These strategies feature in much of the occupational health and safety legislation that has been enad-ed over the last century, such as the Factories Acts 1937 and 1961 (FA) the Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act 1963 (OSRPA) the Mines and Quarries Act 1954 and, more recently, the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act... 

Safety at Work Etc. Act 1974, whilst the subordinate legislation includes a number of Acts, e.g. the Factories Act, and the Offices Shops and Railway Premises Act, which apply to specific types of workplace. 

Within the United Kingdom, the application of industrial occupational hygiene principles and the operation of defined safe systems of work in museums are both recent developments. Before the commencement of the Health and Safety at Work Etc. Act (HASAWA) in 1974, few museums were required to take notice of workplace safety legislation under either the Factories Act, 1964 or the Offices Shops and Railway Premises Act, 1963 and, in common with most types of educational establishment, the last decade has come as something of a shock. The past decade, especially the last few years, has seen some attempts directed at a rapid, and on occasion over-hasty, adoption of safer practices across a range of activities in museums, including research, conservation, visitor welfare and fieldwork—all areas in which health and safety should be prime considerations. 

Over the years, railway safety has been an important issue. In the United States, the Congress passed the Federal Railway Safety Appliances Act in 1893. The act instituted mandatory requirements for automatic couplers and air brake systems, and standardization of the locations and specifications for appliances. Over the years, due to actions such as this, the rail safety in the United States has improved quite dramatically. 

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