Western Railroad Discussion > Just a Matter of Time

Well it has happened. After my message on June 4, a westbound Stack train was rolling past my house this afternoon as I was getting my mail, watched the engines pass, heard the whistle, more whistle and the air go. Told the neighbor someone's on the track, sure enough, LAYING on the track. Heard the emergency vehicles, and the rest is history.

That is awful for the crew and the responders.  Whether this person laid down intentionally to end it all, or was intoxicated beyond belief.  We all know crews who have been through this.  But let me ask for the guys out there running.  My work in the industry does not have me out there running.  You come up on this situation, the person, car, whatever the obstruction is not going to move.  Do you put it in emergency because the rules tell you to, or you have big concerns over winding up in court with the deceased's estate saying you didn't do everything you could to not kill their relative?

The main reason I ask this is NS just piled one up in Ohio because of a drunk driver stopped on the tracks.  Apparently, the emergency application led to a derailment, and that makes me wonder if a full-service application and a (hopefully) organized stop is better than big-holing it with the risk of a derailment.  It's an area we might look into for analysis; just curious what you guys have to say.
 

i''m retired, my thoughts after hitting several werebig hole when you hit them.  mainly to cya. it did nothing to slow you down.  I believe if you didn't blow the horn, road crossing accidents would not be much higher. Sucides are basically unpreventable. After a while, you get hardened to it and it doesn't bother you as much.

Having been involved in a number of these incidents I have to agree, although I think big-holing the train is often a reflex action. A friend was once asked why he didn't dump the air on his freight train, and replied by pointing out all the hazmat in his consist that could have been strewn across the landscape. Frankly, these vehicle and pedestrian strikes are just going to keep on happening, so you might as well get used to it.

Swanton derailment was not a result of a emergency application, but a SUV getting jammed up in a switch, similar to one of the Metrolink derailments years ago.

ShortlinesUSA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That is awful for the crew and the responders. 
> Whether this person laid down intentionally to end
> it all, or was intoxicated beyond belief.  We all
> know crews who have been through this.  But let
> me ask for the guys out there running.  My work
> in the industry does not have me out there
> running.  You come up on this situation, the
> person, car, whatever the obstruction is not going
> to move.  Do you put it in emergency because the
> rules tell you to, or you have big concerns over
> winding up in court with the deceased's estate
> saying you didn't do everything you could to not
> kill their relative?
>
> The main reason I ask this is NS just piled one up
> in Ohio because of a drunk driver stopped on the
> tracks.  Apparently, the emergency application
> led to a derailment, and that makes me wonder if a
> full-service application and a (hopefully)
> organized stop is better than big-holing it with
> the risk of a derailment.  It's an area we might
> look into for analysis; just curious what you guys
> have to say.
>  

Years ago, Southern Pacific’s General Solicitor (head trial lawyer), John Corrigan, made it crystal clear while meeting with an engineer prior to a jury trial concerning a fatal accident. The engineer’s primary responsibility operating his train was safety. Obviously his headlight and Mars lights must be on and the horn was to be used abundantly. But the brakes were to be used safely, applied in emergency if possible but avoiding it if the risk of a derailment was too great. The final judgement had to be that of the engineer and not anyone else lacking his expertise and experience. 

A defense verdict was granted the SP -  and that was in California.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/08/19 11:25 by Westbound.

And just because your train is in emergency, doesn't mean it's going to derail. That only happens rarely. In my career, I can't begin to count the number of times I've been in an emergency stop, either desired, undesired, operator induced or whatever, and it never ended up in a derailment. And, I never heard of a normal emergency application causing a derailment where I worked Kansas City west on Santa Fe/ bnsf. If you handled the train properly in emergency, and crossed your fingers,  it stayed on the track.