Chapter 208. Requiring common carriers engaged in interstate and foreign commerce to make full reports of all accidents to the Interstate Commerce Commission, and authorizing investigations thereof by said commission
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CHAP. 208.— An Act Requiring common carriers engaged in interstate and foreign commerce to make full reports of all accidents to the Interstate Commerce Commission, and authorizing investigations thereof by said commission. May 6, 1910.[[H. R. 3649](/us/bill/61/hr/3649).][[Public, No. 165](/us/pl/61/165).] *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, Railway accidents. Common carriers to make monthly reports of.
Vol. 31, p. 1446. That it shall be the duty of the general manager, superintendent, or other proper officer of every common carrier engaged in interstate or foreign commerce by railroad 351 to make to the Interstate Commerce Commission, at its office in Washington, District of Columbia, a monthly report, under oath, of all collisions, derailments, or other accidents resulting in injury to persons, equipment, or roadbed arising from the operation of such railroad under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the said commission, which report shall state the nature and causes thereof and the circumstances connected therewith: *Provided*, That hereafter *Proviso*.
To be omitted from annual report. all said carriers shall be relieved from the duty of reporting accidents in their annual financial and operating reports made to the commission. Sec. 2. That any common carrier failing to make such report within Penalty. thirty days after the end of any month shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof by a court of competent jurisdiction shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars for each and every offense and for every day during which it shall fail to make such report after the time herein specified for making the same.
Sec. 3. That the Interstate Commerce Commission shall have Investigation by Interstate Commerce Commission. authority to investigate all collisions, derailments, or other accidents resulting in serious injury to person or to the property of a railroad occurring on the line of any common carrier engaged in interstate or foreign commerce by railroad. The commission, or any impartial Authority conferred. investigator thereunto authorized by said commission, shall have authority to investigate such collisions, derailments, or other accidents aforesaid, and all the attending facts, conditions, and circumstances, and for that purpose may subpoena, witnesses, administer oaths, take testimony, and require the production of books, papers, orders, memoranda, exhibits, and other evidence, and shall be provided by said carriers with all reasonable facilities: *Provided*, That *Proviso*.
Cooperation with State commissions. when such accident is investigated by a commission of the State in which it occurred, the Interstate Commerce Commission shall, if convenient, make any investigation it may have previously determined upon, at the same time as, and in connection with, the state commission investigation. Said commission shall, when it deems it to the Publication, etc., of reports. public interest, make reports of such investigations, stating the cause of accident, together with such recommendations as it deems proper.
Such reports shall be made public in such manner as the commission deems proper. Sec. 4. That neither said report nor any report of said investigation Reports inadmissible as evidence in damage suits. nor any part thereof shall be admitted as evidence or used for any purpose in any suit or action for damages growing out of any matter mentioned in said report or investigation. Sec. 5. That the Interstate Commerce Commission is authorized Form of reports. to prescribe for such common carriers a method and form for making the reports hereinbefore provided.
Sec. 6. That the Act entitled “An Act requiring common carriers Prior act repealed. Vol. 31, p. 1446. engaged in interstate commerce to make full reports of all accidents to the Interstate Commerce Commission,” approved March third, nineteen hundred and one, is hereby repealed. Sec. 7. That the term “interstate commerce,” as used in this Act, Definitions. “Interstate commerce.” shall include transportation from any State or Territory or the District of Columbia to any other State or Territory or the District of Columbia, and the term “foreign commerce,” as used in this Act, shall “Foreign commerce.” include transportation from any State or Territory or the District of Columbia to any foreign country and from any foreign country to any State or Territory or the District of Columbia.
Sec. 8. That this Act shall take effect sixty days after its passage. In effect in sixty days. Approved, May 6, 1910.