Has anybody noticed that a lot of Train Crashes have been happening a lot this year of 2009.
Nothing out of the ordinary. We just hear more about them.
January to August 2008 train accident total is 1722.
January to August 2009 train accident total is 1222.
Down by 500 accidents.
http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/officeofsafety/publicsite/Query/statsSas.aspx
You supply towels with your hosing, Ed? [:D]
In keeping with the carriers continual push to lower the operating ratio, Ed doesn’t supply towels…just facts.
Do you suppose Ed’s numbers correlate to a drop in train miles?
Gee, that’s only 153 per month, just over 5 per day. Keep up the good work, fellas!
From the linked-to page:
A train accident is an event involving ontrack rail equipment that results in monetary damage to the equipment and track above a certain threshold. Lading, clearing costs, environmental damage is not included.
I wonder what the threshold is.
More like stoopid people have had their ability to get behind the wheel reduced because they can’t afford to drive. With the conservation of evil theory in place, I’m frightened to see that this might explain why the statistical pedestrian/tresspasser casualties are on the rise. (Witness the three fatalities in the newswire today)
I have seen the figure $6800 published.
Currently $7700 (since 2005-US, $9300Canadian) as a function of 49CFR225 (FRA sets the amount and it is about to go up again, if it already hasn’t to $8300)
Which is where the the roadmaster typically gets p-o’d at the local mechanical department or Hulcher et. al when they drag up cars re-railing them or crush them with cat tracks; Making the damage worse. The trainmaster fills out his report as a not-reportable issue when he turns in his report (sorta true - but they rarely stick around when the repairs are made). The roadmaster and the signal guys fix two or three times the reportable anount and have to eat it in their operating budget instead of their special derailment accounts. Less money gets poured into everyday track maintenance and improvements…[banghead][banghead][banghead]
[edited by selector]
There seem to be several incidents involving crews that released their track warrants, but didn’t restore switches to main track. If so, why is it happening? Shouldn’t the engineer and conductor confirm with each other the switch positions before releasing their warrant?
We all know about “assume,” of course.
That’s one reason we announce on the radio that the position of a mainline switch has been changed.
FRA Emergency Order 24, enacted in response to the NS Graniteville, SC incident requires communicating and recording switch positions in non-signaled main track territory.
Didn’t intend it to be a hosing, but it bugs me when folks guess at numbers when the real numbers are right there, so I provided a link for the fellow to check his assumption against.
2009 had 2.75 accidents per million miles, 2008 had 3.31 accidents per million miles.
The totals in the link include yard derailments, which every railroader here knows is simply gonna happen no matter what.
Trust me, some where right now, in some ones yard, there is a car on the ground…like the Muddy One said, it depends on how good a pencil whipping the roadmaster and trainmaster can cook up as to it being reportable.
Yes, miles for the reporting period January thru August, 2009 were down.
2009 had 444,143,188. miles, 2008 had 520,896,082 miles for a loss of 76,752,894 miles, which I am sure had some impact on the totals.
ED
The numbers also dont show that alot of the derailments and accidents are due to the new guys with men being layed off and the ole heads are doing the work things are not finding the ground as fast. but as the new guys keep comming back the incidents will increase.
We are putting in 12 hours on the lead almost every day…from a roster that was 234 men we are now down to 124, with 3 set to give it up this month.
No call backs announced yet.
with the cuts at CSX maintainers are really overloaded. They had a track inspector put a slow order on a defect detected by a sperry car because they didn’t have the manpower to fix the track within 4 days!!
stay safe
Joe
Ed i was meaning nation wide. we just called back some men and the incidents came up also these guys have been off for almost a year and already they complain about having to work a weekend. Im sure glad i work at a place where things never change.
Oh, I got what your were saying…the UP next door at Basin brough back a few crews who were off over a year…took them less than a week to corner a few, derail a hopper, and run a red…and UP says they are making crewmen off over 6 months(?) take remedial education class to tune them up for return to work.
I think they need to tune up the class instructor first!
We no longer use the SPAF (Switch Position Awareness Form), but as I mentioned, we do announce the changes over the air. I don’t even carry EO24 in my grip any more.