Join the discussion on the following article:
Heber Valley Railroad ignores safety issue, fired inspector says
A pretty typical outline of a whistle blower scenario that doesn’t much help and contradicts the safety first damage control statements of the powers that be.
The power that responded says safety is a priority, yet they were cited upon inspection. It will be interesting to find out how significant the deficiencies were/are. Of course there will probably be an agreement to settle the matter without divulging any real information.
“Safety is our highest priority…" Doesn’t everyone say that no matter what the nature of their business is? The safety inspector is to prevent accidents and just because they have a great safety record doesn’t mean that it will always stay that way.
The Heber Valley Railway isn’t doing that well either.
Both steam locomotives are not in service and don’t operate and it’s all diesel-powered excursions.
Since I know absolutely nothing about the dispute, I am clearly as qualified as the previous bloggers to comment. Maybe the former employee is right and maybe he’s wrong, but give the system a chance to investigate and reach a rational conclusion before pointing fingers.
What conclusion can I draw other than the fact that Nelson is lying when I put these two sentences together:
“he was fired a week after inspectors cited the railroad for violations, documents show.” “Mark Nelson, executive director of the railroad, insists Montoya was not fired because he is a whistleblower, though he says he can’t discuss the real reasons because of likely litigation. He rejects Montoya’s allegations of safety problems.”
Mr Carbone opines that the Heber Valley is not doing that well. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The HVRR is doing as well as any other tourists pike running steam engines. It’s main engine, 1907 Consolidation # 618 is undergoing its required boiler inspection which is a costly undertaking, even as the UP is finding out with Challenger 3985. They are hoping to return #618 to service in the first quarter of 2014.
This is one of those yes or no issues. Are you running a safe operation or not? If not it will catch the offender and take a large piece out of the bank balance one way or another.
Operating safely costs money. If a railroad is struggling financially, safety will eventually suffer as corners are cut to save money. It will be interesting to hear more about this operation, the nature of the violations, and whether the railroad corrects issues identified.
Montoya claims he did a good job inspecting the rails, but apparently he never filed any written reports. ???
UDOT (Utah Department of Transportation) inspection of Heber Valley citation reads, “failing to keep proper written records of inspections”.
Montoya had 3 personal on the job injury accidents, 1 in Nov 2012 and 2 in July 2013, fired without explanation after #3 ???
The SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, Dec 17 2013 tells a lot more about this .
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57213409-78/heber-montoya-nelson-railroad.html.csp?page=2
He’s not the first, and won’t be the last. Big business usually gets its’ way.