Title 49

SECTION 659.35

659.35 Investigations.

§ 659.35 Investigations.

(a) The oversight agency must investigate, or cause to be investigated, at a minimum, any incident involving a rail transit vehicle or taking place on rail transit-controlled property meeting the notification thresholds identified in § 659.33(a).

(b) The oversight agency must use its own investigation procedures or those that have been formally adopted from the rail transit agency and that have been submitted to FTA.

(c) In the event the oversight agency authorizes the rail transit agency to conduct investigations on its behalf, it must do so formally and require the rail transit agency to use investigation procedures that have been formally approved by the oversight agency.

(d) Each investigation must be documented in a final report that includes a description of investigation activities, identified causal and contributing factors, and a corrective action plan.

(e) A final investigation report must be formally adopted by the oversight agency for each accident investigation.

(1) If the oversight agency has conducted the investigation, it must formally transmit its final investigation report to the rail transit agency.

(2) If the oversight agency has authorized an entity other than itself (including the rail transit agency) to conduct the accident investigation on its behalf, the oversight agency must review and formally adopt the final investigation report.

(3) If the oversight agency does not concur with the findings of the rail transit agency investigation report, it must either:

(i) Conduct its own investigation according to paragraphs (b), (d) and (e)(1) of this section; or

(ii) Formally transmit its dissent to the findings of the accident investigation, report its dissent to the rail transit agency, and negotiate with the rail transit agency until a resolution on the findings is reached.

(f) The oversight agency shall have the authority to require periodic status reports that document investigation activities and findings in a time frame determined by the oversight agency.

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