Statistically, someone or something is hit by a train somewhere in the United States every 94 minutes. While most such accidents involve non-human objects like stalled vehicles, shopping cars or wayward livestock, people driving or walking near train tracks are at great risk, too - in large part because of simple silence. Statistics from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) show that 784 people were killed in train-related accidents in 2013, the highest total in the last four years. A top contributing factor, experts say, is that many victims simply don't hear the train coming. It may seem strange that one wouldn't hear a massive machine barreling down the tracks, sometimes at more than 100 miles per hour. But the fact is that factors ranging from railcar and train track engineering to surrounding terrain can actually quiet the sound of several hundred tons of oncoming steel. Unlike the now-retired steam engines that would hammer the rails, modern railcars glide with low fr...

May 8, 2015

If you're a railroad worker who has suffered a disability, know that the Railroad Retirement Act provides annuities to help cover your medical and living costs. The amount you will receive depends upon the extent of your disability - whether it's considered total or occupational. A railroad employee is considered to be totally disabled if medical evidence shows a permanent physical and/or mental impairment that prevents him or her from being able to perform any regular and gainful work. Such a condition is deemed permanent if it has lasted or is expected to last for a continuous period of at least 12 months or to result in death. An employee is considered to be occupationally disabled if a physical and/or mental impairment prevents him or her from performing the duties of his or her regular railroad occupation, but may be able to perform other kinds of work. "Regular occupation" generally refers to particular work that an employee has performed for hire in more calenda...

April 24, 2015

Amid growing concerns about the potential dangers associated with trains carrying fuel, the National Transportation Safety Board is calling for ramped up safety measures. Citing the troubling performance of tank cars involved in four recent oil train derailments, the agency on Monday announced mandated fire protection equipment for the nation's fleet of railroad tank cars hauling crude oil and ethanol within five years. Federal safety officials called on the US Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to require oil- and ethanol-carrying tank cars to be equipped with a ceramic blanket and high-capacity pressure-relief devices. They also endorsed a five-year timeline for retrofitting or replacing the tank cars, with a minimum 20 percent of the fleet being brought into compliance each year approaching the five-year deadline. The five-year goal is considered an aggressive one by many industry leaders who say that a more reason...

April 11, 2015

In an initial move to help boost safety of its oil-by-rail shipments, BNSF Railway has ordered the reduction of its train speeds to 35 miles per hour when traveling through municipalities with 100,000 or more residents. It's a temporary measure that will remain in place as the company's customers phase out DOT-111 tank cars from service and replace them with newer CPC-1232 railcars that better meet federal safety standards. BNSF also has increased rail detection testing frequencies which tests the quality of the rail, to more than twice federal standards, and reduced tolerance for factors that prompt removing a car from a train for a potential defect. This sets the bar higher for a car's quality and safety features. For example, if a wheel is defective, it may be removed from the train immediately. These voluntary initiatives come on the heels of several accidents and derailments involving trains transporting highly volatile oil. Among them was a BNSF train carrying crude oil that...

March 31, 2015

Technology to help increase safety in the railroad industry is constantly progressing. Now, a new software developed here in the River City may offer promise in reducing railcar failure. Jacksonville-based ShipXpress and SparkCognition recently collaborated to develop predictive analytic software that can pinpoint just when a railcar is apt to break down. "We already have various sensors to tell about the health of a railcar," ShipXpress Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer Raghu Misra recently told reporters with the Jacksonville Business Journal. "Until now, we would just do historical reporting on what the health of the railcar has been. Now, we can start predicting when the railcar is bound to fail. Before it starts its journey, we can put it through our algorithm and based on the current health metrics, see if a car is not going to make it." The system has been tested and is ready to hit the market, company officials say. It ultimately may be used...

March 31, 2015

No doubt you've heard the news. Earlier this week, a Metrolink train carrying passengers to Los Angeles derailed when it struck a pickup truck and trailer that had become stuck on the railroad tracks. At the time of this writing, investigators still were looking into just what happened. But an attorney for Alejandro Sanchez-Ramirez says the farm equipment repairman was relying on a paper map to locate his work site when he mistook the railroad tracks for a street, turned onto the tracks and became stuck. Upon seeing the oncoming train coming toward him, Sanchez-Ramirez panicked and fled. The train struck the truck, jumping the tracks and sending more than two dozen passengers to the hospital and, ultimately, Sanchez-Ramirez to jail. The incident illustrates the dangers involved when trains and motor vehicles collide. The crossing where the accident happened has a history of deadly crashes and is ranked among California's two dozen most dangerous. Federal Railroad Administrati...

February 27, 2015

A family lost their home, residents of two small towns were evacuated and thousands of gallons of oil spilled into West Virginia's Kanawha River near Mount Carbon earlier this month after a CSX train derailed. The 109-car train was transporting crude oil from North Dakota to an oil depot in Yorktown, Va. While no serious injuries have yet been reported, one person was treated for potential smoke inhalation. It's unclear what caused the derailment and subsequent explosion that prompted an evacuation order covering a 1.5-mile radius, as well as a suspension of operations at the nearby Cedar Grove and Montgomery water treatment plants. But CSX officials and investigators quickly began working with the Red Cross and other relief organizations to address residents' needs and deploy environmental protective measures. The incident adds to growing concerns over the railway transport of a highly volatile and flammable type of crude oil harvested in North Dakota's Bakken shale. So...

February 27, 2015

Accidents at railroad crossings are among the most devastating. After all, no passenger vehicle on the roadways is any match for a 200-ton locomotive engine barreling down the tracks. These accidents almost invariably result in serious, often life-altering injuries, if not death. Despite the danger, there are important facts that many simply don't know about railroad crossings and the accident risks. Did you know... That railroad crossings are far more plentiful than most think? There are more than 209,300 railroad crossings nationwide, upward of 129,330 of which intersect with public roads, according to figures from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). That most railroad crossing accidents happen close to home? Three out of four crashes occur within 25 miles of a motorist's home, and 50 percent occur within five miles of home, per statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the US Department of Transportation. That you're more th...

February 3, 2015

The rate of train accidents in North America rose in the third quarter of 2014 and among the worst of them were incidents involving trains transporting oil, known in the industry as crude-by-rail (CBR) trains. During 2013 and 2014, there were at least 10 major CBR derailments in North America. These include: A July, 2013 accident in Quebec, Canada wherein several cars exploded, burning down nearly a quarter of the town and killing 47 people; A December 2013 derailment in Cassleton, North Dakota that forced most of the town's 2,300 residents to evacuate; And an April, 2014 derailment of a CSX train that exploded in Lynchburg, Virginia, spilling oil in to the St. James River and setting it ablaze. Of top concern are CBR trains that transport a particular type of crude oil harvested from the Bakken region in North Dakota to cities nationwide. Despite the fact that Bakken oil is far more volatile and flammable than other types of crude oil, extraction increased from 3.4 million ...

February 3, 2015

Over a hundred years ago, railroad safety issues were being hotly debated by our Congressional leaders. Railroads were expanding at an amazing rate and the demand for shipping raw materials to manufacturers and finished goods to consumers was at its height. At the center of the controversy was the obvious need for protecting the rights of injured, disabled or killed American rail workers. By establishing guidelines for proving liability for an employee's injuries, it was believed that big railroad companies would be more motivated to provide a safer workplace. In 1908, Congress passed a second version of the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA) that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Unlike Workers' Compensation Laws, the new federal act was not intended to be an immediate award following a rail worker's accident. Instead, FELA established the legal platform where an injured party could prove that their injuries (at least in part) were the result of negligence on the part of a...

January 6, 2015