Train runs over railroad worker

I saw last night on NBC News that a worker was run over by a commuter train. Out west, I believe it said, and the commentator was saying that NTSB was studying ways to cut down on these. The way we used to do this in the old train order days was by what, I think on Southern/NS was called a "Y" order. I may be off on the name of it, but it went like this: " Train # 5065 (fifty naught sixty five), approach mile post 506.4 (five naught six. dot four) prepared to stop. (period) Do not proceed until notified by Maintenance of Way Foreman Jones (jones) by radio or flag that the way is clear. (Period) Signed, REP (initials of Chief Dispatcher) then Operator (me). This order was included either at the point of departure, or handed up by an outlying point. Also, the Maintenance of Way Foreman had a line-up, current timetable and copies of his own Forms 19, hopefully fresh, of trains expected to cross his territory. HE was then required to clear the time of any approaching train by 5 minutes. IOW, his crew and all machinery was to be in the clear NOT LATER than 5 minutes from the expected arrival time of any train. Most of the time crews were in the clear well prior to the 5 minutes as any prudent group would be! This usually gave depth of information to approaching trains AND crews to prevent any "headlight meets" or collisions with on-track equipment.

I'm out of the loop in the way of doing things now, but it seems something is not working right if a train can "slip up" on a worker and run him over. Any comment?
What was the name on most railroads for MoW orders and bulletins? Discussion? Any old operators out there?

GF

Related to this, I read and hear comments that because of retirements, and traffic growth, the proportion of new hires is higher than it used to be, and some of them may not be properly grounded in the fundamentals of safe operation and get careless. I would also be interested in the experiences of people active today: are there many individuals -- including supervisors-- who aren't sufficiently aware of what safeguards need to be in place? (I'm thinking particularly about the recent occurrence on Metro-North when apparently an inexperienced individual jumped the gun and gave authority for a train to proceed on a track which had not been released by M/W.)

On the old S.C.L. and early CSX we also had 'Y' orders then that evolved into the 'W' order. When I left CSX the 707 was for,what was termed, long term track work
and a 704 was used for short term work,a few hours, or hyrailing from point A to B. With all the federal 'Lone Worker' rules and forms that have to be filled out before
you can even step foot on the right-of-way I can in no way understand how in the hell somebody can get run over.

ExCon90 wrote:Related to this, I read and hear comments that because of retirements, and traffic growth, the proportion of new hires is higher than it used to be, and some of them may not be properly grounded in the fundamentals of safe operation and get careless. I would also be interested in the experiences of people active today: are there many individuals -- including supervisors-- who aren't sufficiently aware of what safeguards need to be in place? (I'm thinking particularly about the recent occurrence on Metro-North when apparently an inexperienced individual jumped the gun and gave authority for a train to proceed on a track which had not been released by M/W.)

I think that can work both ways. I've seen plenty of instances where the older M/W employees tend to be complacent and carry out old habits, and often times no matter how many times you send them to be retrained, you can't teach an old dog new tricks so to speak. Whereas a new hire goes through the training the railroad makes you go through and that is what they know. There was a guy that got hit a couple years ago with 20 years on the railroad, thankfully he survived since it wasn't a direct hit. I know before I ever stepped out on the track, I always made sure we didn't leave anything uncovered. That is why job briefings are held, if you don't feel safe with how the job is set up, you have the right to refuse until it is made safe. More often than not it was the younger guys that raised concerns and forced the foreman to take the right steps.

Freddy wrote:On the old S.C.L. and early CSX we also had 'Y' orders then that evolved into the 'W' order. When I left CSX the 707 was for,what was termed, long term track work
and a 704 was used for short term work,a few hours, or hyrailing from point A to B. With all the federal 'Lone Worker' rules and forms that have to be filled out before
you can even step foot on the right-of-way I can in no way understand how in the hell somebody can get run over.

I can tell you this much. If you took your Rules training under my old Terminal Agent, you would not ever forget how dangerous it could be and how one careless action could get someone killed. By the time I qualified I was never comfortable or complacent with the job. Mr McKenna related a number of stories in his training of us from the old steam days and several wrecks on the Southern. By the time he was finished my palms were cold and sweaty. One of my biggest fears as an Operator was accidentally setting up a headlight meet because Charlotte District had at least one (the "R" line) that was operator-controlled--or of allowing a train to come in on a worker. A properly trained and responsible Block Operator was ever mindful of his terrible responsibilities. If you weren't, you didn't last long on our railroad!

Freddy wrote:With all the federal 'Lone Worker' rules and forms that have to be filled out before you can even step foot on the right-of-way I can in no way understand how in the hell somebody can get run over.

I'm sure you've seen it, too. One skipped step, one "shortcut," can cause all those precautions to be ineffective. Example: Roadway Worker-in-Charge (RWIC) assumes duties as Watchman/Lookout, a bad idea to begin with, then RWIC gets distracted doing tasks other than being strictly the Watchman/Lookout. RWIC ends up being the casualty. <http://www.bmwed.org/news/2012/FAMES_RWIC_1.pdf>

Roadway Worker Protection is like crossing protection: it "protects" only when everything is in place and everybody (motorists, in the case of crossings) understands and works within the plan. Sometimes the Law of Averages lets somebody get away with a "shortcut," and sometimes they get away with it more than once. Sometimes somebody gets the crap scared out of them, and they never do that "one dumb move" again. (Don't ask me how I know that.) Sometimes the shortcut makes for a shorter life.