The Nation : Drug Tests for Trainmen

Senators called for expanded drug testing of train operators and new authority for federal regulators to deal with what an official described as widespread tampering with automatic safety devices on trains. Federal railroad officials, appearing at the first in a series of congressional hearings prompted by a Jan. 4 accident that killed 16 people, said the government is severely limited in what it can do. Both drug use and equipment tampering have been implicated in the collision of an Amtrak passenger train and three Conrail freight locomotives near Baltimore. Amtrak Chairman W. Graham Claytor said at least six safety rules were violated.