Purpose and scope of a Fatigue Risk Management Program (FRMP).

(a) Purpose. The purpose of an FRMP is to improve railroad safety through structured, systematic, proactive processes and procedures that a railroad subject to this part develops and implements to identify and mitigate the effects of fatigue on its employees. (b) Scope. A railroad shall: (1) Design its FRMP to reduce the fatigue its safety-related railroad employees experience and to reduce the risk of railroad accidents, incidents, injuries, and fatalities where the fatigue of any of these employees is a contributing factor; (2) Develop its FRMP by systematically identifying and evaluating the fatigue-related railroad safety hazards on its system, determining the degree of risk associated with each hazard, and managing those risks to reduce the fatigue that its safety-related railroad employees experience. This system-wide fatigue risk identification and evaluation process must account for the varying circumstances of a railroad's operations on different parts of its system; and (3) Employ in its FRMP the fatigue risk mitigation strategies a railroad identifies as appropriate to address those varying circumstances.