UP Fatality -Pajaro, CA

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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Train worker killed on tracks in Calif.

(The Associated Press circulated the following article on October 14.)

PAJARO, Calif. – A train worker is dead after a bloody accident on the tracks outside Watsonville.

Union Pacific employee Darrell Clyde Thompson was killed Friday morning while conducting switching operations.

The Monterey County coroner says both of the 49-year-old victim’s legs were severed in the accident involving a Union Pacific locomotive and railroad cars.

A Union Pacific spokesman says the accident is still under investigation.

Local officials say the National Transportation Safety Board is now looking into the matter.

From BLET Site

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I think I may have read about this in another thread, but it underscores just how dangerous working in a rail yard can be. If this poor guy made a careless mistake in his work, he obviously paid for it with a heavy loss of blood. My condolences would naturally go out to his family.

CANADIANPACIFIC2816

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This is most certainly sad news.To think in the 21st century we still have the word “fatality” associated with the railroad.

I guess that’s why the railroads come up with new rules,that we all hate to be fired by.My Dad always said, “Every rule in the rulebook was due to someone being hurt or killed”.

I can’t imagine the greif the family must be dealing with.

Was there any information if this was a remote controled locomotive or one operated by an engineer ? I keep hearing some much bad about the remotes, it makes me wonder everytime I hear of someone getting hurt on the railroads anymore.Technology is suppose to help us.I just think sometimes we make a two steps backwards for every step we take forward.

Really sad news [:(].

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Authorities examine death of railroad worker in Calif.

(San Francisco television station CBS 5 posted the following article on its website on October 19.)

PAJARO, Calif. – Authorities are investigating what went wrong at a Union Pacific Railroad yard in Pajaro last week when freewheeling train cars amputated the legs of a brakeman.

Darrell Thompson, 49, of Santa Cruz, died Friday at the Salinas Road switching station where he and a co-worker moved locomotives and train cars to destination yards. The co-worker found Thompson, who had worked for the Union Pacific Railroad for about three years, lying between cars with his legs severed around 9:20 a.m.

The co-worker told investigators he did not see how Thompson became entangled between the cars. Thompson died at the scene.

National Transportation Safety Board Investigator Mike Flanigon said today he and numerous other agencies’ investigators are interviewing co-workers, reviewing employee histories and testing railroad equipment, like the locomotive’s remote control, to determine how and why Thompson ended up underneath the cars.

"We haven’t identified anyone who actually saw the individual become entangled and fall,‘’ Flanigon said, adding that foul play is not suspected. "The cars were freewheeling and somehow he was struck and fell and somehow he got under the cars. We don’t know exactly how or why.‘’

Investigators do know that Thompson’s co-worker, a conductor, kicked loose three cars attached to a locomotive to send them freewheeling into a destination yard between 300 and 500 feet away, Flanigon said. Once the cars are separated from the locomotive, which is managed by small control boxes carried by both the conductor and the brakeman, the cars are rolling freely at about 5-10 mph and cannot be controlled remotely, Flanigon said.

The locomotive, however, had its emergency brakes activated by Thompson’s control pack and