airman00 wrote:I read this and at first I wasn't going to reply, but feel compelled to do so. This corporate culture of money over people has got to STOP and it has to stop now! CSX upper management needs to be raked over the coals for this. More than likely this accident was completely avoidable by just simply telling crews in the areas most affected by the darkness of the eclipse to stop work for ten minutes until it gets light again. But heaven forbid you stop work for ten minutes! And in addition to this, I happen to know for a fact, that this current csx corporate culture isn't just at csx. This corporate culture of putting the bottom line and the shareholders over employees, and treating employees like yesterday's newspaper, is a problem at most companies across this country in almost any business. My opinion is Mr. CSX CEO's "new policy's" played a role in this, someway, somehow. Forgive me if I crossed the line in any way with this post, and I really hope this man will be ok, but it's high time companies start treating there people like human beings and not mindless robots.
Not being THERE at the time, I am certainly not qualified to point fingers. I can, however, ask a few questions. If an employee was working on a car/engine, or other on-track equipment, how is it that this equipment wasn't IN a rip track with BLUE FLAG protection? Why is it that equipment being worked on is not "in the clear", or on tracks with sufficient separation that work crews (car pecks, etc) can do so safely without being affected by movement on adjacent tracks? How did the employee manage to HAVE his arm UNDER the car(s) to BE run over in the first place? Did someone shove in/couple to the cut he was working on? The way this is presented is very fuzzy and unclear and tends to present ONE side of the incident.
From the standpoint of the safety culture at Norfolk Southern, it would *seem*(?) that this was entirely preventable. "The person most responsible for YOUR Safety is YOU". If you SEE something that is unsafe, You (the employee) are responsible to, first, analyze the scene. 2) Survey any hazards that may be present. 3) Secure the area with flags, locks, tag-outs. 4) Correct any unsafe condition. and 5) If the scene/job is UNSAFE, DON'T UNDERTAKE to do DO it. lest the hearse "UNDERTAKE"
YOU!!! 
At NS, EVERYONE was/is a "Safety CHAIRMAN".
Surely, there are factors of which I am unaware; that, I admit. I, too, have been pressured to do a job that was unsafe to do, but the company would FIRE YOU if you got caught performing unsafe tasks. Never, never, never place yourself in a situation of known danger. A railroad yard is, by its nature, dangerous. One must ASSUME that anything can happen at any time. Thus NS spent huge amounts of time and huge $$$$$ teaching a SAFETY CULTURE. I saw a supervisor get DEMOTED and transferred because he allowed a known defect to exist in a forklift and did not correct it immediately.
And the final safety rule that kept ME safe out there, "Expect movement on ANY track, at ANY time, from ANY direction. Always."
