The SSOA may suspend any individual (including RTA employees or contractors) from performing all safety-sensitive functions or specific safety-sensitive functions at a rail transit agency overseen by the SSOA in the event the SSOA determines that the individual is unfit to safely perform such functions.

1. A. Safety-sensitive functions include those functions directly or indirectly affecting the safety of passengers, employees, or other people and property in and around the rail transit system. This may include frontline personnel, supervision, or management. Safety-sensitive functions include work such as operations, central control, maintenance, systems, signals, safety, and emergency response.
2. B. The SSOA may determine the length of suspension from performing safety-sensitive functions that is warranted based on the totality of the circumstances, including the specific nature of the event or events, history, and action already taken by the transit agency, its contractors, or the individual. The SSOA may set requirements that must be met prior to returning to a safety-sensitive position.
3. C. The SSOA will communicate such a suspension to the RTA and direct the RTA not to utilize the individual in safety-sensitive functions for the specified period. The RTA must communicate this suspension to the individual and to the individual’s supervisor or supervisors. The RTA must confirm that the individual and their supervisor or supervisors received this notification, provide records of this notification, and must ensure that the suspension from performing safety-sensitive functions is implemented.
4. D. The SSOA’s action to suspend an individual from performing a safety sensitive function is not a form of discipline, does not affect employment status, and does not replace or otherwise affect the transit agency’s (or its contractor’s) disciplinary processes.
5. E. If an individual is not on full duty at the time a suspension is issued, the suspension from performing a safety-sensitive function will commence the first day the employee would otherwise return to full duty. The individual is not permitted to perform any safety sensitive function until the suspension is complete.
6. F. Any suspension from safety-sensitive duties by the Maryland SSOA applies at any other Maryland rail transit system overseen by the SSOA.

Authority: Transportation Article, §§2-102(c)(5) and 7-203.1, Annotated Code of Maryland;
49 U.S.C. §5329 and 49 CFR Part 674

Effective date: March 26, 2018 (45:6 Md. R. 321)

Chapter revised effective January 5, 2026 (52:26 Md. R. 1309)