By Julie Sneider, Senior Associate Editor
In December 2022, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) extended for another year— through 2023 — its “Most Wanted List” of transportation safety improvements.
In renewing the list originally drafted in 2021, the board is urging action on 10 transportation safety improvements needed now to prevent accidents, reduce injuries and save lives. The improvements stem from the board’s investigations of transportation accidents, many of which are fatal.
Because road traffic fatalities surged to a record high during the pandemic, five of the 10 items on the agency’s list relate to road safety. But for the first time in 2021, the NTSB added to its list a call for improving rail worker safety after noting an alarming increase in rail roadway worker fatalities between 2020 and 2021.
In 1997, the Federal Railroad Administration implemented new rules to protect rail employees who work along the side of or on tracks. Since those rules were implemented, 73 rail roadway workers have died while on the job. Since rail worker safety landed on the NTSB’s Most Wanted List in 2021, the agency has participated in 18 investigations involving roadway worker fatalities. Three of those investigations have closed; 15 are pending.
Although the rail sector’s record on worker fatalities is better than that of many other industries, the NTSB’s concern is such fatalities are preventable, says NTSB Board Member Thomas Chapman.
“That’s why this safety improvement issue is a priority for us,” he says. “We believe there are ways of preventing those deaths from occurring, and implementation of our recommendations would go a long way to ensure those fatalities are avoided.”
Taking note of positive steps
The NTSB late last year extended its Most Wanted List through 2023 after the pandemic interrupted its safety advocacy actions. But the extension doesn’t mean the board has observed a lack of progress. Since 2021 the NTSB has observed some “positive indications” toward improving safety for rail workers, Chapman says.
One example stems from an NTSB recommendation following a 2018 Amtrak accident in Bowie, Maryland, where a 21-year-old rail worker was killed due to circumstances involving a train approach warning (TAW) system.
In the past, the NTSB has determined TAW systems are vulnerable to human error, such as miscalculating site distance and generally underestimating the time needed for workers to leave the tracks when a train is approaching.
The Amtrak accident occurred April 24, 2018, when a train fatally struck a rail gang watchman on the main track No. 1 near the Bowie Train Station along the Northeast Corridor, according to the NTSB report. At the time of the accident, the main track No. 2 was out of service for track maintenance, and the adjacent tracks to the east and west were in service for trains.
Three men were watching for trains coming on the adjacent tracks so they could warn the workers to move out of the way for approaching trains. One watchman was positioned near the boarding platform, another in a nearby curve and the third toward the end of the curve, near a work gang of welders. The third watchman was the employee struck by the train, which was authorized to travel on main track 1 at a speed of 105 to 110 mph.
On April 24, 2018, an Amtrak train fatally struck an Amtrak rail gang watchman on the main track No. 1 near the Bowie Train Station along the Northeast Corridor. NTSB investigation report NTSB investigators identified three safety issues: inadequate site-specific safety risk assessment; unsafe train speeds in established work zones; and ineffective roadway worker protection. The recommendations called on the FRA to prohibit the use of TAW in controlled track territory during planned maintenance and inspection. In addition, the board recommended that Amtrak and all Class Is eliminate the use of TAW in controlled track territory during planned maintenance and inspections.
NTSB: Follow CSX’s example
“Generally, there has generally been resistance to those recommendations from the industry,” says Chapman. However, one Class I — CSX — is taking “important steps that we think are in the right direction,” he adds.
CSX is establishing working limits as a standard practice and reducing train speed “substantially” when trains are traveling through work zones where it’s not possible to establish working limits, Chapman says.
“So, CSX unilaterally has taken steps to substantially improve safety in areas where train approach warning is being used and when it isn’t otherwise possible to establish working limits,” says Chapman. “We are very encouraged by that. It’s not 100% of our recommendation, but it goes a long way toward achieving [our] objective.”
NTSB members hope other Class Is will follow in CSX’s steps. The board also hopes the FRA will implement a rule prohibiting the use of TAW, but that may not be necessary if other Class Is take action first.
In a similar vein, the NTSB has encouraged the Federal Transit Administration to adopt roadway worker protections. Traditionally, the agency has deferred to state agencies to implement such protections at the state or local level.
“The problem with that is you get different outcomes in different jurisdictions,” Chapman says. “But the encouraging news is that the FTA has indicated to us that they are in the early stages of developing a roadway worker protection rule, which we hope will address some of our recommendations and concerns.”
Meanwhile, the FRA appears to be making some headway in addressing an ongoing concern of rail safety advocates, which is that its roadway worker protection rules are “unwieldly and difficult to interpret” in the field. Recently, the FRA has asked its Railroad Safety Advisory Committee to review the rules and make recommendations for improvement.
“We think that’s a very positive step,” says Chapman.
Volpe studying safety for crews on hazardous trains
In another sign of progress on the rail safety front, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has been working on a research project at the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center to improve the safety of crews on trains carrying hazardous materials.
The project, which also involves the FRA and Transport Canada, is evaluating data to determine the adequately safe distance between a train crew and the hazmat-containing rail cars. NTSB has recommended that five buffer cars be placed between the crew and those cars.
“We’re anticipating that we’ll see the final report from the Volpe Center fairly soon and that will help determine the next steps with respect to buffer cars,” Chapman says. “And we are hoping that whatever comes out of that Volpe report will then lead to positive action by PHMSA with respect to mandating buffer car separations.”
