Friends and I have received notices reguarding a new safety related railroad book.
RAILROAD COLLISIONS
A Story of Mismanaged Risk
by George Swimmer
It further describes the book as:
An examination of mismanagement and misinformation that endangers lives throughout America’s sprawling rail system
Several ads for this book have appeared in the fan publications.
A friend, that has been active in railroad safety circles, challenged the author as to his expertiese on the subject. He received this reply.
" I have been involved in railroad safety for over 20 years as a member of the DuPage Railroad Safety Council (DRSC), During that time I have investigated train accidents, testified in front of governmental bodies, written many articles and op/ed pieces promoting rail safety. The book is edited by a retired UP locomotive engineer, and also by a rail safety specialist who is internationally known. In the book I interviewed many people including the former director of safety for Metra Commuter Rail (Chicago area rail service) who is also a former locomotive engineer, I also interviewed another retired locomotive engineer and BLET officer. I interviewed parents who lost their children in railroad accidents. All of the people I mentioned above are or were members of the DRSC. They are among many DRSC members, many of whom are railroad employees, who are working to improve rail safety. The book took me about 5 years to write and research. It is my hope rail safety will improve because of it."
I haven’t read the book yet so I can’t comment on its value to enhancing the safety culture. But I find it interesting that he talks about mismanagement without interviewing any safety experts in management. A muck raker?
I’ll leave it to you to decide if it’s worth your time and $ to have this in your library.
Apparently this book is available as a free download.
Here is a comment from a promotional review:
“Doing for railway transportation what Ralph Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed did for the automobile industry, Railroad Collisions is a sobering look at how mismanagement and misinformation endangers lives throughout America’s sprawling rail system.”
I find this one covering Swimer’s comments on the 1995 Fox River Grove grade crossing accident to be interesting. He cites the following factors of the accident:
“Swimmer contends that the NTSB investigation missed several significant factors contributing to the collision:
The cab car on the Metra train did not have the triangular lighting pattern that makes trains more visible and identifiable. The bus driver testified she had not seen the train coming before crossing the tracks.
The absence of a two-person crew operating the train, even though the value of su
Latest Book: “Railroad Collisions: A Deadly Story of Mismanaged Risk”
Publisher: Createspace
Release Date: November 2015
What’s your book about?
As a citizen advocate, I have spent more than 20 years investigating the causes behind railroad collisions. What I discovered was a tangled mess of both inadvertent and intentional mismanagement. In ‘Railroad Collisions,” I fault the railroads themselves for poor risk management, but the industry is by no means the only culpable party. The Federal Railroad Administration’s timid dealings with railroad companies impairs meaningful changes, while the National Transportation Safety Board’s findings in many of their accident investigations are questionable. I support these arguments with concrete examples, interviews with locomotive engineers, railroad safety professionals and others, and extensive research.
It may not be free. I got that impression in looking at this offer. It provides the download button and makes no mention of the price. I have not tried to download it.
Thanks for the heads up. You just saved me the price of this (insert perjorative of choice.)
Don’t you just love bean counters who second-guess qualified accident investigators? Then there’s the bean counter/insurance adjustor mindset that everything is a big conspiracy to cause accidents that wouldn’t have happened if THEY were in charge.
Just another revisionist historian without the real background (engineering, math and hard science) to know what he’s trying to talk about. I’ll pass.
Yes, it does seem like activism. He is shaking the tree of FRA intervention and selling the idea to the public that the evil railroads are to blame for all the perils they inflict on society.
Addendum to my previous post. Lawyers, politicians and activists seek to assign blame (emphasis on who). Engineers and scientists try to identify and fix problems (emphasis on what, how and why). When and where are matters for chaos theory.