My cousin is currently training in chicago to be a brakemen for Union Pacific RR. He came home this weekend and told us a bit of what he learned. He said that they were watching a safety video. There was a Conductor that was in between two boxcars and he had to manualy open the couplers. Then I don’t know how it happened, but he got pinned together between the couplers. He was alive just by of the pressure of being pinned together. This was just mainly to scare the*** out of them so they wouldn’t be stupid and have it happen to them. My cousin said that this year alone that around 1,000 people if i remember correctly has had this happen to them this past year alone. I should tell you that nobody really got hurt while they were filming the video and I was just wondering if anybody heard of or knew someone who had this happen to them?
Thanks,
Dustin
Dustin,
It’s more like 134 deaths in switching operations this year…
Go to the FRA website and read the statistics…also look at the SOFA (switching operation fatality analysis) listing and operation page for the details.
June is historically the most dangerous month in the yard…
Ed
That is very sad to hear[:(].
Allan.
Isn’t the “three step protection” designed to prevent this?
Yeah thats right I( forgot how many zeros but I know it was a lot in just one year.
I know it really sad Allen, I couldn’t agree with you more.
Dustin
Three Step Protection can only be provided to a conductor, etc if there is a controlled engine tied onto one end of the cut. The other end being tied onto usually won’t have a controlled unit tied onto it. Even with three step you still need to seperate the equipment by 50 feet at the least! Don’t even go in between the equipment unless your cut and the cars you are tying onto are at least a car length apart. You need to give yourself as much space as possible because you never know what is going on on the other side of the cut you are tying onto. Anyone who assumes they are safe simply because they have three step might as well find another occupation right now. Survival instinct is a must on the railroad. Anyone who would just cross tracks without looking, stand about 5 feet from a freight train passing by at 50mph, or stand between two couplers doesn’t belong out here. I have had to coach several co workers about rethinking what they are doing.
I had one trainee that wanted to stand on the middle of the siding we were waiting on to watch an oncoming trailer train race by at 60mph. I walked up and grabbed him by the shoulder and walked him back behind our engine and explained to him the danger he had put himself into. He just looked at me blankly, no comprehension whatsoever, and went right back to where he was! I just told him to get back on the freakin’ engine.
In another instance I was the trainee and my conductor was standing in the track behind our train that had just come to a stop. He was only about 10 feet from the rear car when the slack started rolling out. I had to get his attention as he had no idea his own train was sneaking up from behind him.
The main lesson here is to assume everything is out to get you. Take nothing for granted. You are but a mere insect compared to the massive equipment you work with out there. Also, keep your mind on your work. I have watched two old head conductors get in a hurry because they wanted to make last call at the b
Yes, it’s amazing how many people have no idea what kind of danger they put themselves in. Where I work, (large parcel shipping company), a member of management was recently found crushed between a trailer and the building. Thereafter, a major new safety campaign is sweeping through the company, including only allowing “authorized employees” out into the yard, and keeping everyone else on ONLY the crosswalk!
While I am certainly not saying that safety is of trivial importance, it’s amazing how one (one!) person’s carelessness can completely change the focus of a company!
-Mark
www.fuzzyworld3.com
It was either the late 80’s or early 90’s. It happened in an old Mo-Pac yard or storage lot in El Paso, Texas. The yard is sandwiched between loop 375 and the US-Mexican border. When I started my new career, we were shown about 15 pics of this incident. Needless to say, it scared the hell out of us. The worst part was that his wife came to the site, and they said their good-byes. The wife left, the cars were separated, he fell in two and passed. A lession I will never forget.
Troops, I think we’ve got an urban legend here. I got the same story when I hired out on the Milwaukee, right down to the wife’s visit, except it was “someplace in Montana”.
I’ll bet the guys in Montana heard it was “somep[lace in Idaho”.
The story was widely reported in the El Paso at the time. Photos in the news paper show the two cars but with blankets obscuring the scene. We were taken the the yard and shown the spot. That was eerie.
its a true story… and he was alive and they brought his wife and family down to say goodbye…becouse once they pulled the pin and pulled the cars apart…it was over… railroads are not playgrounds… it is hard and dangerous work… and sad as it is to say… fatilitys are a fact of life…
csx engineer