Comment from SMART-TD
SMART-TDSupportIndividual
Summary: An individual commenter supports the proposed restriction on drone operations near fixed site facilities. They argue that Union Pacific Railroad is using drones for disciplinary purposes rather than engineering, creating safety hazards and distractions for train crews.
Union Pacific Railroad routinely uses drones for train crew discipline. Instead of using the drones for its original intent, engineering, Union Pacific Railroad has Instead used its drones for absolute disciplinary evaluation of Trainmen, while in the performance of operating (job performanc). On every occasion a drone is observed by train crews, it becomes a safety hazard as train crews are now worried about and observing the drone while performing safety-sensative tasks. All tasks performed by trainmen has both the greatest and immediate threat to loss of life/limb and/or injury. Please restrict Union Pacific Railroads use of drones to its original intended use. Union Pacific Railroad has highly visible high definition cameras within all of its rail yards that are a standard of practice for observation within the yards. In person testing has always been the standard and evoles to include remote camera observation. The addition of drones dimensions the Trainmens ability to focus on work requirements by requiring them to bifurcate between being safe and efficient and worrying about surreal disciplinary standards that were nonexistent prior to the implementation of the drones for disciplinary purposes.