Union President Offers Sensible Ways To Improve Rail Safety - Urges Congressional Action

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Union President Offers Sensible Ways To Improve Rail Safety - Urges Congressional Action

Category: Grade Crossing Accidents

The President of the leading AFL-CIO union dealing with railroad workers, Edward Wytkind, offers a series of sensible ideas to help improve railroad safety. His proposals set forth in the San Antonio Express-News are reprinted here. Mr. Wytkind is president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO. He represents several million rail, mass transit, aviation, highway, longshore, maritime and other transportation workers.

In Oneida, N.Y., it was propane. In Brooks, Ky., it was methyl ethyl ketone. And in Macdona, 17 miles from downtown San Antonio, as residents remember, it was chlorine.

Each community has experienced freight train accidents recently, with chemical spills that killed or injured rail workers and residents. These and other accidents were not caused by bad luck. Rather, they are grim reminders of a rail industry that too often skimps on safety, training, staffing and technology and whose powerful lobby has derailed every attempt by Congress to update federal rail safety laws since they were due for "reauthorization" almost a decade ago.

The new majority in Congress appears poised to get serious about updating rail safety laws. The House is discussing comprehensive legislation that I hope will be passed soon.

With more traffic on the rails, the risks are getting higher -- 1.7 million carloads of hazardous material are transported by rail every year. Just one ruptured rail car of chlorine could kill 100,000 people in a densely populated area, according to a U.S. Navy study.

The Macdona wreck should have been a wake-up call. According to federal accident investigators, the probable cause of the accident was crew fatigue. At issue were Union Pacific's train crew scheduling practices, which had required the train engineer to work long hours in the weeks before the accident.

FULL story at link.