Palmetto - Train 89 Incident

Do they have an observer assigned to the track gangs?

The Wall St Journal has confirmed that the night foreman gave up his foul via cell phone and off the property of the railroad.

David Benton wrote:Do they have an observer assigned to the track gangs?

One of the two killed was the day foreman. It's reported now that he was running towards the backhoe to try to save the operator in time but that didn't happen as we all know.

An observer is someone whose only function is to observe. In other words their sole responsibilty is to keep an eye out. A foreman is not an observer.
All electrical power line gangs must have an observer here, and I think British Rail used to have one either side of a work site( possibly called a flagman? ). Wether the British track authority still does , I don't know.

bluedash2 wrote:The Wall St Journal has confirmed that the night foreman gave up his foul via cell phone and off the property of the railroad.

And obviously, the night foreman did not have a PROPER turnover with the day foreman with the highlight of the turnover being the status of the protection.

To quote 'Cool Hand Luke' = "What we have here is a failure to communicate". with tragic consequences.

David Benton wrote:Do they have an observer assigned to the track gangs?

The normal practice is to have two--one at some distance from each end of the work area--each equipped with a compressed-air cylinder which blows a rather piercing horn to alert the gang, and a hand-held circular sign with the letter W reminding the engineer to sound the whistle. I'm not sure whether there was a Form D or a bulletin order issued calling for a speed reduction for passing trains (evidently not, since 89 was doing 106 mph at time of impact); I'd think that if the gang needed foul protection, there would at least have been flagmen. Maybe all of that was in effect and the night foreman dismissed the flagmen when he gave up his foul, and the dispatcher might have canceled any speed restriction. If so, a serious chain of consequences from one lapse.

FRA ordering an Amtrak Safety Stand Down

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2016/04/0 ... on-safety/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ExCon90 wrote:

David Benton wrote:Do they have an observer assigned to the track gangs?

The normal practice is to have two--one at some distance from each end of the work area--each equipped with a compressed-air cylinder which blows a rather piercing horn to alert the gang, and a hand-held circular sign with the letter W reminding the engineer to sound the whistle. I'm not sure whether there was a Form D or a bulletin order issued calling for a speed reduction for passing trains (evidently not, since 89 was doing 106 mph at time of impact); I'd think that if the gang needed foul protection, there would at least have been flagmen. Maybe all of that was in effect and the night foreman dismissed the flagmen when he gave up his foul, and the dispatcher might have canceled any speed restriction. If so, a serious chain of consequences from one lapse.

Not necessarily true. Only one person is required. To answer David Benton's question. Yes Amtrak has what are called watchmen. Their sole responsibility is to look out for trains and warn the work group. This person is assigned by the foreman in charge of the work group.On straight sections of track where visibility is good, only one gang watchman is needed. If the work is being performed on or around a curve where the watchman is unable to observe approaching trains with sufficient time to clear, the foreman will assign an advanced watchman.There may be instances where you might need as many as 4 or 5 advanced watchman depending on the physical characteristics of the territory. The general practice is to place them within earshot of each other to ensure that they are able to hear the horn of the advanced watchman ahead of them, as well as their whistle (the whistle is used as a backup when the horn fails, the air cylinders do not like cold weather and have a tendency to fail in subzero temperatures). The rules require 15 seconds in the clear, not 15 seconds to clear the track, but 15 seconds after everybody clears the tracks before the train passes. When the watchman observes a train, he will blow his horn, and raise the orange disk (by day) or white light by night above his head, and if the work group is fouling live track, they will clear the track, or if they are on an out of service track, they are required to stop their work and look up to observe the train. The work group will only return to work once the train has passed and the watchman has given the all clear.

Amtrak does not utilize flagmen on the NEC between NY and Washington for the purpose of track work. As far as I am aware, due to different labor agreements they are only used on the New England portions of the NEC. Flagmen (who are actually qualified conductors, not working on the train) are similar to the foreman in that they can take track out of service or use foul time, watchman cannot do this, their sole purpose is to warn of approaching trains. The foreman is the only person in charge with taking track out of service by Form D, or utilizing foul time, and providing the appropriate on track protection to the employees working under them. Trains are never required to slow down when passing a work group, so long as no work has been performed to disturb the integrity of the track bed. If the MAS is 125mph, the train has all the right to pass the work group at 125mph. If the track the gang is working on is live, they clear the track, if they work on an out of service track, they simply stop working to look up. To clarify, only people are allowed to foul live track with the proper on track protection, heavy duty machinery cannot foul live track, the foreman must either get foul time or take it out of service.

Thank you both for your answers.

NTSB Prelim Report was released (NJ.COM)

NTSB Prelim Report from the horses mouth.

The gist of the short two-page report is "Track 2 was TOL, Track 3 was fowled, why did train 89 get routed onto it?"

All the Foul time was released by the 3rd shift foreman,and a poor turnover to the 1st shift foreman
of conditions and status of the project. Time to wait for the docket to released to the public by NTSB.

STrRedWolf wrote:The gist of the short two-page report is "Track 2 was TOL, Track 3 was fowled, why did train 89 get routed onto it?"

Or, train 89 was routed onto Track 3, why did the backhoe foul it?

Last sentence of the report wrote:NTSB investigators are confirming what roadway worker protections were in place at the time of the accident.

The Morning Call of Allentown, PA is reporting that the NTSB says that the backhoe had the right to be on the track at the time of the impact.

Sorry if this was already reported by someone else. A quick look didn't yield any other posts.

http://touch.mcall.com/#section/2331/ar ... -86647925/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It seems the report in the Allentown Morning Call has been changed to "A backhoe operator had a right to be on train tracks periodically on the weekend an Amtrak train slammed into it...", the word ?periodically" being added to the article, but not to the headline.

from NTSB report, there is no mention of Engineer or Dispatcher , so it seems there was a communication problem at work site.
rumor has it , the night foreman instead of clearing up on railroad radio, used his personal cellphone.
The work gang never heard he cleared up , and assumed the foul time was still in effect.