49 U.S.C. § 20301
Section 20301 · Definition and nonapplication
This is the Safety Appliance Act
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 67 court decisions — leading case Strickland v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co. (2012)
Most recently applied in 2020 IL App (1st) 190383 - Hansen-Runge v. Illinois Central R.R. Co. (October 2020)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) Definition.—In this chapter, “vehicle” means a car, locomotive, tender, or similar vehicle.
(b) Nonapplication.—This chapter does not apply to the following:
(1) a train of 4-wheel coal cars.
(2) a train of 8-wheel standard logging cars if the height of each car from the top of the rail to the center of the coupling is not more than 25 inches.
(3) a locomotive used in hauling a train referred to in clause (2) of this subsection when the locomotive and cars of the train are used only to transport logs.
(4) a car, locomotive, or train used on a street railway.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
SectionSource (U.S. Code)Source (Statutes at Large) 20301(a) 45:8 (“trains, locomotives, tenders, cars, and similar vehicles”). 45:9 (3d sentence). 20301(b) 45:6 (1st sentence proviso). Mar. 2, 1893, ch. 196, §6 (1st sentence proviso), 27 Stat. 532; restated Apr. 1, 1896, ch. 87, 29 Stat. 85. 45:8 (words after 16th comma). Mar. 2, 1903, ch. 976, §1 (words after 23d comma), 32 Stat. 943. Subsection (a) is added to avoid repeating the substance of the definition throughout this chapter.
In subsection (b), the words before clause (1) are substituted for “Provided, That nothing in sections 1 to 7 of this title shall apply to” in 45:6 because 45:9, 11, and 16 provide that 45:9 and 11–16 apply to the same vehicles and trains as 45:1–7 apply to. In clause (1), the word “coal” is added for clarity because of the decision of the Supreme Court in Baltimore & Ohio Railway Co. v. Jackson, 353 U.S. 325, 333 (1957) and the legislative history of 45:6 (proviso). See 24 Cong. Rec. 1477 (1893). The text of 45:8 (words after last comma) is omitted as unnecessary because of the definition of “railroad” in section 20102 of the revised title.
Pub. L. 104–287
This amends 49:20301(b) to clarify the restatement of 45:8 by section 1 of the Act of July 5, 1994 (Public Law 103–272, 108 Stat. 881).
Amendments
1996—Subsec. (b)(4). Pub. L. 104–287 added par. (4).
Effective Date of 1996 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 104–287 effective July 5, 1994, see section 8(1) of Pub. L. 104–287, set out as a note under section 5303 of this title.