NTSB releases rail accident reports, opens dockets

The National Transportation Safety Board in recent weeks has released a number of reports and investigative updates into several rail accidents.

Following are summaries of those reports.

• NTSB concluded that Metropolitan Atlanta rapid Transit Authority's (MARTA) procedures for track protection were insufficient and as a result behind the probable cause of a technician's injury after being struck by a MARTA train on Oct. 19, 2024, in Atlanta. The technician was struck while doing maintenance work on wayside train approach lights. The NTSB concluded that MARTA's procedures were insufficient for the location and type of work being performed and did not provide adequate warning time for technicians to move to safety before the train arrived. Contributing to the accident was the designated lookout person performing tasks not consistent with his duties, thereby failing to detect the oncoming train. The report can be read here. 

• NTSB determined the probable cause of a March 11, 2025, accident involving Hulcher Services Inc. (HSI) at the Port of Stockton in California occurred because of a lack of a standardized process for how and where to be safely positioned when operating a hand brake. According to the NTSB, an HSI assistant division manager trainee was seriously hurt during a rerailing operation at the port. The injured trainee was part of an eight-person HSI crew working to rerail four rail cars that had derailed. The trainee stepped between a rubber tire loader and a rail car to release a hand brake and was pinned between the car and the loader, resulting in multiple injuries. The accident underscores the critical importance of a standardized process for how and where a crew member is positioned to safely operate a hand brake, NTSB officials said in the report, available here. After the accident, HSI added a new rule to its safe practices handbook and incorporated it into its standard operating procedures. 

• NTSB opened the public docket for its ongoing investigation of the June 25, 2025, accident involving a Union Pacific Railroad conductor who was seriously injured while riding the lead tank car during a shoving movement in Lexington, Nebraska. The docket can be read here.

 • NTSB issued an investigation report, available here, for the Nov. 4, 2024, accident involving a BNSF Railway maintenance-of-way employee who was fatally struck by a BNSF freight train while driving a welding truck across a highway–railroad grade crossing near New Rockford, North Dakota. Another BNSF MOW employee on the passenger side of the welding truck was injured. The board determined the probable cause of the accident was the welding team’s failure to detect the approaching BNSF freight train as they were backing the welding truck over the private grade crossing. Contributing to the accident was the welding team’s noncompliance with, and lack of understanding of, BNSF’s safety rule S-12.8. After the accident, BNSF clarified the backing rule. 

• NTSB opened a public docket for its ongoing investigation of the June 26, 2025, accident involving an R. J. Corman Railway Group conductor seriously injured during a rail-car switching operation at Guthrie Yard in Guthrie, Kentucky. Although the docket has been opened, it has not been released as of today.