What happened in the other accidents?
Well I started conductor training in 04 and we had 13 weeks of training. Everyday the instructor’s would talk about how dangerous railroading could be. Drilled into our heads.
Well the day before our final test to become conductors a guy was riding a tank car in the switch yard. They were shoving back when the car hopped off the rail. He fell under and was unfortunately cut up in three pieces. It really hit how dangerous it could be. His dad worked there and he never came back. It was horrible.
Second guy and third guy happened in 09. Lenny had been out there 30 plus years. Six months from retirement. He started feeling sick one trip and had his conductor run while he walked back to the second unit. I think they were going around 30mph. Those engines rock back and forth. He somehow fell off and just so happened to hit a bunch of railroad ties that were stacked up next to the track. Conductor got concerned when it was taking so long so he stopped and called the dispatcher. The train crew behind them saw him and stopped. He was still alive but passed away on the way to the hospital. Broken skull with internal bleeding. The real sad thing about that one was when his wife saw Lenny’s brother walk in to the funeral. They were identical twins and I guess it hit her hard seeing his face. Sad deal.
Greg’s death happened like 3 months later. Had to set out a cut of rail cars in a siding. As a conductor you ride the rear car making sure nothing is on the rail such as other cars or broken rail etc. It was around 2am and they started shoving back when Greg stopped communicating. Engineer immediately stopped. He called the dispatcher and they had a passing train stop to check. There just so happened to be another stack of ties way too close to the tracks. The assumption was he didn’t see them. It was dark and you are 30 miles from any town so no lights but the stars. Fell under. He was about a year from retirement. 30 plus years as a railroader. BNSF tried covering that one up. They sent out a track guy to move those ties so they wouldn’t be blamed. Assholes.
That’s just the guys in my terminal. Usually we averaged 2-3 a year across the whole system but that was a bad year.
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