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Amtrak 175 strikes; kills 2 CSX workers in Washington, DC


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#11 KevinKorell

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Posted 28 June 2017 - 10:10 PM

Amtrak says that 175 of 6/27, which normally arrives in Washington at 11:10 PM,  arrived into  Union Station at 8:37 AM on 6/28, 9 hours 27 minutes late. Imagine being within sight of the NOMA area and being almost 9-1/2 hours away from arrival !!    Hoping the passengers were rescued off the train before then.



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#12 KevinKorell

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Posted 29 June 2017 - 11:34 AM

WTOP Radio, Washington, DC, 6/29/17:

 


 

No radio frequency for CSX crew to warn Amtrak they were on DC track

 

Two CSX conductors struck and killed by an Amtrak train Tuesday night could not have directly warned the Amtrak engineer that they were on the tracks since CSX and Amtrak operate on different radio frequencies, a union representative said.

 

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#13 CNJRoss

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Posted 29 June 2017 - 05:08 PM

WTOP radio, 6/29:
 

No radio frequency for CSX crew to warn Amtrak they were on DC track

 

 

WASHINGTON — Two CSX conductors struck and killed by an Amtrak train Tuesday night could not have directly warned the Amtrak engineer that they were on the tracks since CSX and Amtrak operate on different radio frequencies, a union representative said.

 

SNIP

 

Herbert Harris, D.C.’s state representative for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, said Amtrak engineers have their own radio frequency to communicate with the Union Station terminal and get other instructions along the Northeast Corridor, while CSX has a separate radio system.

 

“So there wouldn’t have been any interactional communication between the crews unless CSX had notified either Amtrak or possibly the tower in Union Station that they had a crew that was either on the ground or had a train with a problem, and that may very well be one of the issues that they look into: the communication with who, and what if any notification had been given,” Harris said. He represents Amtrak and commuter locomotive engineers.

 

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#14 CNJRoss

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Posted 12 July 2017 - 05:48 AM

WTOP radio, 7/11/17:
 

Report: CSX workers killed by Amtrak train had no time to react, no chance to escape

 

 

WASHINGTON — Two CSX conductors struck and killed by an Amtrak train last month in Ivy City were just a few hundred feet from safely getting back onto their freight train when they were killed, a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.

 

Two Amtrak engineers — one going in each direction — said they started sounding their horns when they saw the CSX workers on the tracks on June 27. The two trains passed the workers at nearly the same time, and would not have had any way to directly communicate with the CSX crew. The train closest to the freight tracks — southbound train 175 to Union Station — struck the conductor and conductor trainee.

 

A CSX supervisor was just across the tracks from the crash, because he had just driven to the location to help troubleshoot the train issues that had been flagged by an automated defect detector.

 

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#15 CNJRoss

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Posted 12 July 2017 - 05:55 AM

NTSB Preliminary Report, 7/11/17:

 
Preliminary Report Railroad: Employee Fatalities – CSX/Amtrak
Executive Summary

The information in this report is preliminary and will be supplemented or corrected during the course of the investigation.

 

 

On June 27, 2017, about 11:18 p.m., eastern daylight time, two CSX Transportation (CSX) employees were struck and killed by southbound Amtrak train 175 at Amtrak milepost 134.5 at Ivy City in Washington, D.C. The two employees (conductor and conductor trainee) were returning to their locomotive on their southbound train after inspecting a reported defective railcar.[1] They had their backs toward the approaching Amtrak train when they were struck. The sky was clear, visibility was 10 miles, and the temperature was 64°F.

 

There were four parallel tracks (two CSX and two Amtrak) where the employees were struck. CSX freight train Q13727 was stopped on CSX track 2. The middle track was Amtrak track 3 where Amtrak train 175 was traveling in the same direction as the freight train. The track on the far right was Amtrak track 2 where Amtrak train 66 was traveling in the opposite direction of the freight train at the time the employees were struck. According to each Amtrak engineer, they started sounding their horns when they observed the employees on the track.[2] (See figure.)

 

DCA17MR010-prelim.jpgFigure. CSX train Q13727 that was stopped on CSX track 2.
 

A CSX train dispatcher told the crew of CSX freight train Q13727 that a wayside defect detector had indicated overheated bearings or wheels on their train. The detector recorded a suspect axle. The crew was given the specific axle to inspect. The CSX engineer explained that the conductor and the conductor trainee had gone back to inspect the car with the suspect axle.

 

After discussing the situation with the train dispatcher, the train crew decided to set the defective car out of the train using the crossover switches between tracks 1 and 2. The engineer pulled the front of the train partially through the crossovers so that the rear of the train was on track 1 and the front of the train was on track 2. The front of the CSX train was then adjacent to Amtrak track 3. The first car in the CSX train had three bays or platforms with containers.

 

The employees were struck near the end of the first car, about 350 feet from the locomotive.

 

Before setting the car out, the conductor discussed the situation with his supervisor. The supervisor consulted with the CSX mechanical department and, after getting the results of a second defect detector, he told the crew to inspect a different car. Meanwhile, the CSX supervisor drove to the train’s location to assist with these issues. He was in his vehicle near the tracks across from the CSX locomotive when the accident occurred.

 

After inspecting the second car reported by the mechanical department, the conductor and conductor trainee started walking back to the locomotive. The rear of their train was on track 1 and the front of their train was on track 2. As they approached the front of the locomotive, the walking space between CSX track 2 and Amtrak track 3 narrowed. They were struck by Amtrak train 175 that was traveling about 73 mph on Amtrak’s track 3.

1 CSX refers to the conductor trainee as “conductor qualifier.”
2 The front of both Amtrak trains passed about the same time the employees were struck.


Probable Cause
The information in this report is preliminary and will be supplemented or corrected during the course of the investigation.

 

 



#16 CNJRoss

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Posted 09 April 2019 - 03:20 PM

NTSB News Release:

 
NTSB: CSX Workers Were Walking on Amtrak Tracks When Struck, Killed in 2017
 
4/9/2019

 

 

WASHINGTON (April 9, 2019) — The 2017 deaths of two CSX Transportation workers were the result of their decision to walk on an active Amtrak train track in Washington, D.C., the National Transportation Safety Board said in a report issued Tuesday.

As a result of its investigation, the NTSB issued a safety recommendation to CSX and Amtrak that they prohibit employees from walking or working too close to adjacent tracks of another railroad unless the employees are protected by means of communication between the two railroads.

 

A CSX conductor and a conductor trainee were struck and killed by an Amtrak train on the night of June 27, 2017.  After checking a problem with a railcar, the two CSX employees were walking south, to the left of their freight train, on the closer of two adjacent Amtrak tracks, when they were struck. Contributing to the accident was their likely focus on the lights and sounds of the northbound P66 Amtrak train approaching them on the far-left Amtrak track and their failure to realize Amtrak train P175 was coming from behind them at nearly the same time.

 

 

NR20190409-fig.jpg
Diagram of June 27, 2017 accident site. MP refers to milepost. (NTSB graphic)

 

 

NTSB investigators learned through interviews that many railroad workers found it easier to walk on track crossties rather than directly on the ballast, which are the small stones beneath and around the track. Investigators found that while the conductors were likely aware that the two Amtrak tracks were active, they may have chosen this more comfortable way to walk back to the front of their train because no Amtrak trains had passed through the area for about an hour.

 

“Walking on active railroad tracks without protection is dangerous and wrong,” said Robert Hall, director of the NTSB’s Office of Railroad, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials. “Walking on another company's tracks without protection is even more dangerous.”

The full report can be found at: https://go.usa.gov/xmYxU

 

The safety recommendation can be found at: https://go.usa.gov/xmYxE

 

 



#17 CNJRoss

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Posted 29 April 2019 - 06:27 AM

Safety + Health, 4/24/19:
 

NTSB issues safety alert on ‘fouling’ railroad tracks

diagram-of-accident-site.jpg?1556128314
Photo: National Transportation Safety Board

 

 

Washington — Prompted by a fatal incident involving two railroad workers walking on tracks owned by another railroad company, the National Transportation Safety Board on April 9 issued a safety alert regarding “fouling.”

 

In the incident, which took place in June 2017 in Washington, a CSX conductor and a conductor trainee were struck from behind by an Amtrak train. The workers, according to NTSB, fouled the Amtrak tracks, which means they were close enough to another railroad company’s tracks to be struck by one of its passing trains or, in any case, within 4 feet of the nearest rail. After inspecting the CSX train’s equipment, the workers were walking on the end of the crossties of the Amtrak rail rather than on the ballast near the train they were inspecting.

 

“Walking on active railroad tracks without protection is dangerous and wrong,” Robert Hall, director of the NTSB Office of Railroad, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials, said in an April 9 press release. “Walking on another company’s tracks without protection is even more dangerous.”

 

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