Articles Tagged with ''railroad industry safety''

Rail tank cars that carry crude oil, ethanol and other hazardous materials across the country must do it more safely. That's one of four new issues on the NTSB's Most Wanted List for 2015. Also new to the list of top 10 areas that need safety improvements are: Requiring that transportation operators be medically fit for duty; strengthening commercial trucking safety; and requiring pilots to strengthen procedural compliance.

The National Transportation Safety Board has issued a Safety Alert that focuses on the visibility of railroad signals. On railroads, light-emitting diode (LED) railroad signals may mask nearby incandescent signals, preventing incandescent signals from being visible to train crews.

Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company's actions against an injured worker have resulted in the largest punitive damages ever in a retaliation case under the Federal Railroad Safety Act. A recent investigation by OSHA found that the worker, who was employed as a coach cleaner for the commuter rail carrier, was retaliated against after reporting the knee injury he suffered on Nov. 17, 2011.

Paul Proudlock went to bed at midnight to calibrate his sleep for a freight train he was to drive at 2 p.m. the next day. At 2:15 a.m., a Canadian Pacific dispatcher called him and asked him to take a passenger train in three hours.

Metro North Railroad comes in for some harsh criticism in a report issued this week by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) about five accidents involving the company’s trains that occurred within less than a year.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says it identified several recurring safety issues in its investigation of recent five Metro-North accidents. Among them: inadequate and ineffective track inspection and maintenance, extensive deferred maintenance issues, inadequate safety oversight, and deficiencies in passenger car crashworthiness, roadway worker protection procedures and organizational safety culture.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has determined that the May 28, 2013 train/truck collision, 15-car derailment, and subsequent explosion in Rosedale, Md. was caused by the truck driver’s failure to ensure that the tracks were clear before traversing an un-gated highway-rail grade crossing. Contributing to the accident was the truck driver’s distraction due to a phone conversation on a hands-free device at the time of the crash.

Firefighters pay the price for unsafe welding, hazmat in the air and in nail salons and an “urgent” health threat were among the top EHS-related stories featured on ISHN.com this week.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) yesterday issued a special investigation report on the recent increase in deaths of railroad and rail transit roadway workers on or near tracks and made recommendations to reduce the number of fatalities.