49 CFR 225.7 – Public examination and use of reports
(a) Accident/Incident reports made by railroads in compliance with these rules shall be available to the public in the manner prescribed by part 7 of this title. Accident/Incident reports may be inspected at the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration, Office of Safety, West Building 3rd Floor, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590. Written requests for a copy of a report should be addressed to the Freedom of Information Act Coordinator, Office of Chief Counsel, Federal Railroad Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, RCC-10, Mail Stop 10, West Building 3rd Floor, Room W33-437, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590, and be accompanied by the appropriate fee prescribed in part 7 of this title. To facilitate expedited handling, each request should be clearly marked “FOIA Request for Accident/Incident Report.” For additional information on submitting a FOIA request to FRA see FRA’s Web site at http://www.fra.dot.gov/us/foia.
Terms Used In 49 CFR 225.7
- Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- employee: includes the classifications of Worker on Duty—Employee, Employee not on Duty, Worker on Duty—Contractor, and Worker on Duty—Volunteer. See 49 CFR 225.5
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. Source: OCC
(b) 49 U.S.C. § 20903 provides that monthly reports filed by railroads under § 225.11 may not be admitted as evidence or used for any purpose in any action for damages growing out of any matters mentioned in these monthly reports. The Employee Human Factor Attachment, Notice, and Employee Supplement under § 225.12 are part of the reporting railroad’s accident report to FRA pursuant to the 49 U.S.C. § 20901 and, as such, shall not “be admitted as evidence or used for any purpose in any suit or action for damages growing out of any matter mentioned in said report * * *.” 49 U.S.C. § 20903.