As of last week, we at the PTRA are no longer allowed to ride to the joint…we must stop at least one car length away, dismount, and then make the joint.
A little history here, until a few weeks ago, we got on and off moving equipment, in fact; we were trained to do this.
Believe it or not, it is very easy to do, and much easier on the knees…looks scary as all get out, but it isn’t.
We were also trained to never, ever enter the plane of the car body when the car was in motion, ever.
As a switching terminal, getting on moving equipment is part of the job, but riding the end of the car isn’t…if you’re not on the side, your in the Red Zone…(We were taught to call it the dead zone!)…
BNSF has a rule in their timetable and safety rules, you don’t ride to the joint, and you don’t get on and off moving equipment.
(The PTRA has adopted those same rules.)
Every one of the BNSF’s locomotives has a sticker in the side steps showing the three point contact rule as a reminder to conductors and switchmen to ride safe, as do a lot of their box cars and hoppers, placed where you have to see it if your riding the ladder/stirrup correctly.
If this guy rode to the joint, standing on the end platform, who ever trained him did a bad job.
If he had been on the job only a year, he should have been trained to do it right…unless who ever trained him had bad habits, or didn’t correct him when he developed his own…
Come on folks, this aint rocket science, this stuff is massive and heavy, if you get in the way, it will not slow down, it will just kill you and keep on rolling.
For you guys or girls out there thinking of going railroading, remember this…they can weld the cars back together if you goof up, but they cant weld you back together…its rare you get a second chance.
And June and July are historically the most dangerous months for switching/yard fatalities.
The number one goal of