A Law for Railway Safety Traffic

Lately, a very serious phenomenon affecting the railways has special implications in the safety traffic: there has been alarmingly increased the number of wrongdoers that are stealing various subassemblies (railway track, small track materials, fastening materials) and destroy the aggregates from the signaling equipment. CFR SA is confronting with such a serious issue, because the fact that the maintenance activity of the train traffic on the railways in secure conditions is endangered, as well as through the financial efforts that should be made in order to recover the stolen and destroyed subassembly.
In order to forestall these phenomena, the General Inspectorate for Safety Traffic and Control closely collaborates with the railway police bodies, yet, in the same time, they act on their own. Recently, there has been made a draft law meant to complete the legislation, so certain provisions will become much more concrete and more efficient. Following the example of other railway administrations worldwide, the proposed draft law stipulates, among others, the interdiction of the access of the citizens in the safety area of the railways. This way, each citizen would be forced through law not to penetrate the safety area of the railways, naturally, with the exception of the case in which they are railway men or they have the special approval to work in this parameter. We remind here that at the railways the safety area means the section located on both sides of the railway axle on a 20 meters distance.
The punishments stipulated in this draft law in the case of infringement of the legal dispositions are the penal fine and the jail. Unfortunately, although it takes advantage of the support of the Ministry of Transports, Constructions and Tourism, the project did not be approved.
For the railway men, who are confronting almost daily with such issues and who have gathered evidence and know the situation from the countries where there is such a law (for example, Canada), it was a great - and unpleasant! - surprise the rejection of this draft law. It is fair that those who produce damages to the Railways represent a quite small percentage reported to the entire population of the country and the danger that they create through their deeds can cost the life of a great number of people traveling by train, and also of the CFR employees.
Presently, in Romania, for the prevention and the punishment of the thefts and of other offences at the Railways there are only the provisions of the Penal Code. Although the punishment for the theft offence from the state property has been increased from four up to eighteen years, the number of thefts and destructions at the railways was not at all decreased.
CFR SA has resorted to all possible means, including the radio and TV broadcast, in order to explain the serious implications of those that make reckless actions, in the exchange of the price of a piece of cooper or iron sold at the scrap colleting centers, endanger the life of the passengers of a train. Unfortunately, the effect of these measures has been unexpected: from those explained by the respective broadcast the wrongdoers have learnt … how and what they should steal! To prove that, the suddenly increased number of the offenders recorded by RGSCC from the second day after such a broadcast, fact that simply flabbergasted the railway men.
Presently, all those directly attending the railway activity, no matter within which railway company they are working with, they have the obligation to announce RGSCC about any phenomenon occurred. For these deeds there should be informed the track officer from the nearest railway station, after which there it is performed a written notification from the Railway Transport Police from the respective area. Everything, as soon as possible, as operative as possible, so those that are in right to take situation regulation measures could use the respective information or could watch such cases.
One of the most serious phenomena recorded this year was the theft of the metallic boxes from the railway inductors, subassemblies that directly take part at the provision of the safety traffic on the railways. In order to stop the thefts, there has been taken the measure of replacing these components with plastic ones, the activity took almost one year and there was necessary a great amount of money. The result? In 2003 there was not claimed any theft at this category of railway assemblies!
Yet the imagination of the wrongdoers has gained more and more stupefying accents, with serious consequence as well: there has been stolen the railway track, too! In order to exemplify, here we have four cases recorded at RGSCC for a period of 12 hours on September 154, 2003: 
- non-identified persons have braked the freight train no. 92655 and have thrown the scrap iron transported in the wagons along the railways, fact representing an immense danger 
- some of the iron pieces remain in the railway perimeter and being the possibility to occur catastrophes; 
- other offenders have cut and have stolen the platform for transiting from a freight wagon stopped in order to be sent to the annulment center; 
- non-identified persons have stolen a dependence cable (which makes the link between two subassemblies) on a 35 meters length; 
- there have been stolen the supply converters ( equipment providing the safety traffic). 
All these deeds have been directly notified to Railway Transport Police from Petrosani, Bucharest, Baia Mare and Vaslui.
The situation is further on alarming and tends to become very serious in the conditions in which the number of the employees on the entire railway network has been considerably decreased. The railway men are forced to make huge efforts in order to watch the entire railway network. Only the issuance of a more punitive law could counteract these phenomena…

Ileana Statie