A Sad Day in Chester County (SC)

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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R.I.P. Brother, R.I.P.

Rick

One dead, one injured in separate rail incidents

CHESTER, S.C. – One man was killed and another lost three of his limbs in separate train accidents during a 12-hour span Tuesday, August 26, 2003, in Chester County, according to the Rock Hill Herald.
John Scott Graves, 29, of 2358 Oxford Circle, Lancaster, died Tuesday afternoon when authorities say he was crushed between two train cars at an industrial plant. Graves was pronounced dead at 1:16 p.m. at the Chester County Hospital emergency room, Coroner Watson Wright said. He died from massive chest and internal injuries.

At 12:10 a.m., Joel C. Brown, 28, of Fourth Street was struck by a train near the Saluda Street train crossing outside the Eureka Mill village. Brown lost both legs and his left arm and was flown to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. He also suffered serious head and internal injuries, authorities said.

Tuesday night, he was in critical condition.

Graves, a Lancaster & Chester Railway employee for two and a half years, was at the PPG Industries fiberglass products plant on S.C. 9 when the incident occurred at 12:34 p.m. He and some coworkers were dropping off the loaded train cars and hooking up several empty cars to a train, L&C President Steve Gedney said Tuesday.

As they were picking up one empty train car, Graves was out of sight of his coworkers. As the train backed up to hook up the empty car – a routine L&C workers perform daily – Graves was heard yelling over his radio for the train to stop, according to Chester County Sheriff’s Office reports.

The train stopped, but Graves was found between the train and the empty car.

“I was very shocked,” said Gedney, who was informed of the fatal accident while on vacation Tuesday. “This has been very tragic. We are very upset about it … Our sympathy goes out to the family.”

Gedney said the Federal Railroad Admi

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Did you find this in the TRAINS news wire?

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Its a sad and tragic day for the L&C and the family of the poor guy…

What about the other guy??? was he drunk and passed out???
tripped, fell and knocked out? suicide???

Why was he on the tracks in the middle of the night???
something odd about that story…

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Never mind, don’t answer what I asked, and why was the guy on the tracks in the middle of the night?

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No idea about why the idiot was on the tracks in middle of the night.

Just sad about the trainman. It is SO easy to slip and fall at the wrong moment. I’m sure Ed and others out in the yard can tell you that. Switching is damn risky. Gotta keep the insurance paid up…

LE

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Yeah it is a sad occurance. Do you happen to know how fast the train was going when he got hit?

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I know what is in the article. Nothing more.

LE

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My condolences to the crewmans’ families and friends.

Take care[:)]

Russell

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It’s a terrible thing and I feel very sorry for all who witnissed the event and for the train crew.

Willy

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We called it the “Dead Zone” when I signed on, now the FRA perfers it to be called the “Red Zone”.
Its the area within the plane of any railcar on a track occupied by a locomotive.

The intent is that you may not viloate the zone unless you contact the engineer on the locomotive, and inform him you are entering the zone.

He must respond with “set and centered” meaning he has set the brakes, and centered the reverser, and shut off the generator field to prevent any movement while you are between the cars, weither you are lacing up air hoses, opening knuckles, adjusting couplers, or releasing or tieing a handbrake.

The engineer may not move the locomotive under any circumstance, until you tell him you have cleared the zone.
You may not “piggyback” on someones eles call, in other words, if I enter the zone, my helper must, if he is going to enter the zone, make a seperate signal to the engineer, who may not move till both of us have cleared, and he has heard from us both seperatly.

For most of us who switch for a living, this is the most important rule there is.

While limitedclear’s photo shows a very attractive young lady, if that is a active yard she is posing in, she has placed herself in a position to be killed.
If the cars behind her move suddenly, she will not be able to stand up and move clear fast enough to save her very pretty tail.
I am not that cute, but you couldnt pay me enough to pose in that position, no matter what yard or who is controling the cars.

Nothing, and I mean nothing will scare you more than having the cars you are lacing up move while you are kneeling inbetween them.
Or having the cars on the track next to you slam together from another crews kicking.

On the PTRA, you may not enter the zone on any moving car, period.

Ask any old head who is missing a finger or two how it happened, and most likley he will tell you he did something dumb, like trying to open

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Very, very sad.
Please be careful around railroads.

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I agree with you Ed. It is a dangerous job.

In the east we refer to it as “Three Step Protection” in most respects the steps are the same as the Red Zone you describe. The trainman advises the engineer he is “going in” (breaking the plane of the railcar or locomotive) and requests “Three Step Protection”, the Engineer applies the train brake in an amount sufficient to hold the train (minimum 20 lbs reduction) and the independent brake and centers the reverser and places the generator field switch in the off position. The protection is held until released by all requesting it.

As to the photos, they were all taken with equipment fully secured according to the photographers site. I have no reason to know otherwise.

LC

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Well, with assets like that, I would tie everything down!!
None of the new hires ever seem to look like that, and it would make on the job training so much more fun!
Stay Frosty,
Ed

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No, Ed, you never do forget.

A very good many years ago, we had the hump computer tilt its flanges skyward and had to do the whole thing by hand which meant doing double shifts as a mudhop and then your regular shift. There I was, in the bowl, clearances of 6 inches each side.

The rule was for the track on each side to be locked so not cars could enter it. Well, there I was, checking tracks left and right, working my way back from the crest to the trim retarder. There was a deep carpet of wood chips that had been knocked off the cars and snow on the ground. Imagine my response when without a sound, a cut of empty flats came flying by me on one of the tracks I was checking making a very hard joint.

The company didn’t think my response to the yardmaster over the radio met FCC rules for content, so they gave me 30 days. Nothing happened to the culpable.

Keep your insurance up. Job, life and disability!

Sorry Ed, but I can’t stay frosty on this one. Not even all these years later.

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Kenneo, your right, on this one no one should ever be quite.
When we get new hires assinged to train on my job, one of the things I do is take them into the middle of the yard, and have my helper float a few flats down towards the track we are by. It never fail to impress on them how quite some of this stuff can roll, or how easy it is to forget to look down,
instead of expecting the cars to all be tall enough to see easily.
And yes, I do carry life insurance, and my wife has me insured through her policy with the state. Morbid, but if it gets me, they dont have to worry about money, I am worth more dead than alive.
But its going to have to work mighty hard to catch me.
Stay Safe,
Ed

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How horrible for the families of both men, no matter how it happened and for the workers involved. The living suffer for many years afterward.

But - I have to ask - we have a mudchicken - what’s a mudhop? Forgive me for intruding on a tragedy like this, but i can’t let the term pass by w/o asking.

jen

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A mudhop is a clerk who is out in the yard checking car numbers against train manifests. It could be a terribly miserable job in crummy weather.

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thank you!

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I had a frightening experience several years ago putting together a local in a small (7 track) yard. I was working as a Conductor alone (no brakie) and had just coupled our power to the big four car train and was walking to the rear to stuff our marker in the rear knuckle and perform the brake test. I had been promoted about 4 months when this happened and was still quite “green”.

As I arrived at the rear, I noticed a boxcar rolling away from me on our track about 10 carlengths away. At the time I noticed that the knuckle on the rear car was closed, but didn’t catch the significance of that fact.

I performed the brake test and was just putting the flag in the knuckle when I I felt the hair on the back of my neck go up and jumped clear just in time for that boxcar to slam into the knuckle I had been standing at. Needless to say I was shaking pretty damn hard.

When I hired out they told us to think of a yard as a bowl. Yards are built this way to keep rolling cars from escaping on to the main or other tracks. In this case it seemed that our last car and this other car had been sitting with knuckles butted (both closed) and it had rolled away. The design of the yard (bowl) caused the car to roll back silently creeping up behind me as I was hanging the marker. To this day, I don’t remember what it was that caught my attention, but I am very thankful to be alive.

LC

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My condolences too the families involved.
Please Stay Safe
joe