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Teamsters Host Rail Safety Committee Meeting

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Members of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division (BMWED) and the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS) met at Teamster headquarters this week.  This was one of several meetings that have been held over the years for the Fatality Analysis of Maintenance of Way Employes and Signalmen (FAMES) committee.  As with past meetings the committee members discussed railroad fatalities and recommendations for preventing them.

According to the BMWED: The FAMES Committee (Fatality Analysis of Maintenance-of-way Employees and Signalmen) analyzes all railroad related fatalities and selected related incidents and they use the information they gather and/or agree upon to make recommendations in an effort to reduce the risk of future occurrences. The goal is to eliminate fatalities to roadway workers. The Committee is made up of railroad companies, railroad unions, agencies such as the FRA, AAR, DOT, etc. that are involved with the railroad industry.   When they meet, the committee looks focuses on a specific topic, such as on-track safety, accident patterns (i.e, hours of the day), safety on railroad bridges, fatalities on adjacent tracks, etc.

The BMWED is a division of the Teamsters Rail Conference which represents 70,000 maintenance of way employees, locomotive engineers and trainmen on passenger and freight rail lines across the United States.