DATE: Sunday, June 29, 1997                 TAG: 9706290056

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: CHARLESTON, W.VA.                 LENGTH:   46 lines

CSX INSPECTIONS ARE LACKING, AGENCY FINDS THE RAILROAD'S SAFETY CHECKS ARE TOO ISOLATED TO BE MEANINGFUL, THE REGULATORS SAY.

An audit of CSX Transportation Corp.'s safety and inspection practices has raised ``serious concerns,'' federal railroad regulators said.

In a report to be published Monday, the Federal Railroad Administration says the company's inspections ``fell far short of the intended objective,'' The Charleston Gazette reported.

The 10-page report contains preliminary findings of a federal audit of CSX operations that regulators initiated after a fatal accident in Scary, Putnam County, on June 7.

The report says the agency found company inspections were detailed and comprehensive but inadequate in two key ways:

Although CSX conducts the right number of inspections each month, it generally tests a single location instead of several, the agency said.

Most of the inspections are done within a one- or two-day period instead of throughout the month, the report said.

Such testing patterns ``preclude any meaningful analysis of the results by CSX,'' the report said.

The railroad administration requires operational tests and inspection programs to make sure workers follow rules and to help prevent accidents.

``We will take very seriously what the FRA has directed. One accident is one too many,'' CSX spokesman Rob Gould told the paper.

``We feel very good that we have a strong program in place, but we will give serious consideration to the directive and will review our operational testing and inspections.''

The June 7 crash, in which a freight train carrying chemicals rear-ended a coal train, forced hundreds of people to flee their homes to avoid fumes from burning chemicals. The engineer of the freight train died.

The exact cause of the accident remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

``We do have some serious safety concerns about the inspections and checks and balances within the CSX system,'' said railroad administration spokesman Jim Gower.

The CSX audit, along with an investigation of a head-on collision of two Union Pacific trains last Sunday in Texas, caused the railroad administration to order railroads to review their safety and inspection programs.

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