They called in at 9:16 am. The call was made to the State DOT. U know and I know that there is no one at the office until at least 830 and wont pick up the phone until they have had at least 3 cups of coffee[:D]
CP should have sent an email to NY DOT within the specified time frame to avoid the fine. Also, I find it hard to believe that a populous and progressive state like New York would have no one on staff to take emergency calls like this after normal work hours. At the very least they should have called 911 so that someone there could get in touch with DOT. Would CP have waited until 9:16 am had the tank cars exploded? Somehow I doubt it
The CP knows who to call and trust me the state has somebody to answer the phone 24x7. Their processes just failed. At one time my job was to notify state and federal agencies of accidents (NY was not one of the states and the CP was not the railroad) and trust me this isn’t either the CP’s or the state’s first rodeo.
Took me about 20 minutes to find the number and procedures page ( 1 page, approx. 41 KB electronic file size) - not real easy, but not impossible, either:
“Call 1-800-TO NYDOT (1-800-866-9368)” - says it’s monitored 24 hrs. a day.
Would expect that it’s hung on a wall or bulletin board at all rail offices in the state . . .
- Paul North.
That’s really old school.
Most of the bigger roads have a central reporting center, the field calls the center and then goes back to cleaning things up, the call center takes care of notifying all the appropriate agencies and documents when the calls were made.
Agreed, but: A minor yard derailment - which this really was, could have been handled by the local Mechanical Dept. “block truck” and M/W guys with a big pickup truck, hand tools, and maybe a backhoe, etc. - might not have otherwise justified notifying the central reporting center. If this becomes the ‘new normal’, information/ communications overload becomes a concern. The $5,000 fine might be cheaper in the long run . . . it’s “political theatre” anyway, but that’s another topic.
- Paul North.
In today’s Class 1’s - if a wheel hits the ground - headquarters gets notified.
Right about the political theatre, Paul. All we need here is a “perp walk.”