Railroader's Nightmare: Hazmat Injures 5 at BNSF

[Anonymous]

Chemical leak hurts railyard employees
(The Chicago Tribune posted the following article on its website on August 6.)

HODGKINS, Ill. -- As many as five railyard workers suffered burns or headaches from an unidentified chemical leaking from a trailer aboard a rail car Thursday at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight yard in Hodgkins.

The train pulling the rail car arrived at the Willow Springs Intermodal Facility at 7600 Santa Fe Drive, and employees unloading the trailer noticed one or more drums on board leaking a chemical, according to a spokesman for the railroad.

One employee suffered burns after the chemical got on his hand, the spokesman said. At least two other employees who were working nearby complained of headaches from the fumes. All three were taken to La Grange Memorial Hospital. Their conditions were not immediately known.

[cherokee woman]

That does NOT sound good. Not at all! I hope the employees will be all
right.

[kenneo]

Reminds me of the incident at Chatsworth some years ago when SP put some freight forwarder trailers into the Cal 1 overpass. Out spilled lots of busted shipments of HAZMAT (both chem and radiological) traveling as FAK/NOIBN ( a Waybill acronym meaning = Freight All Kinds / Not Otherwise Identified By Name). Oh, did that ever stir the [censored]. A lot of [censored] was being spoken and much [banghead] happening.

[oops][tdn]

[Junctionfan]

If I was BNSF I would make sure that in the future all intermodal customer disclose all hazmat related materials so they can make sure that if the customer didn't properly secure the contents than the railroad employees know what to beware of.

I think though the customer should get sued if it is found that they were at fault. Surely the customer could get fined by the government for that if in fault.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan

If I was BNSF I would make sure that in the future all intermodal customer disclose all hazmat related materials so they can make sure that if the customer didn't properly secure the contents than the railroad employees know what to beware of.

I think though the customer should get sued if it is found that they were at fault. Surely the customer could get fined by the government for that if in fault.

This information is normally contained in the conductor's manifest on a road freight. As this was a yard, such paperwork is usually at the yard office so the employees involved likely had no way of knowing. If the customer failed to provide the information it could indeed be charged criminally and in a civil action.

LC

[ericsp]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Limitedclear

QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan

If I was BNSF I would make sure that in the future all intermodal customer disclose all hazmat related materials so they can make sure that if the customer didn't properly secure the contents than the railroad employees know what to beware of.

I think though the customer should get sued if it is found that they were at fault. Surely the customer could get fined by the government for that if in fault.

This information is normally contained in the conductor's manifest on a road freight. As this was a yard, such paperwork is usually at the yard office so the employees involved likely had no way of knowing. If the customer failed to provide the information it could indeed be charged criminally and in a civil action.

LC

It seems like the yard crew would need this information. Espcially if the car requires special handling.

[Anonymous]

The hazmat info has to be accessible to the RR employees, when they are in the yard that generally means in the yard office.....

You don't see too many conductors carrying around all their paperwork while they switch......makes entraining and detraining a little difficult.

[ChuckCobleigh]

Aren't highway haulers required to indicate when hazardous materials are being carried through those little square indicators on the back and sides of the trailer that can be changed from "flammable" to "corrosive" to "explosives" to maybe other stuff?

It kind of makes sense that when pigs are put onto a train, some sort of stand-alone indication should be on the trailers when hazardous materials are on board.

Having the only information sitting on a desk somewhere is just about useless to people dealing with the equipment in the wild.

[ericsp]

Piggybacks are required to be placarded if they meet the requirements, same as for non-piggybacks. If there is less than a certain amount of material (the weights are different for different classes), the trailer does not need to be placarded, otherwise your car would require placards. However, some of the placards are vague, espicially if it only says "DANGEROUS".

[JoeKoh]

Hope they all recover soon.
stay safe
joe

[Overmod]

Dear God, this is something that should have been documented, and something that deserves an effective emergency-communication system. I can see why BNSF might be reluctant to divulge details to 'the press' about this incident, money-hungry lawyers being as astute as they are -- but if in fact the crews DIDN'T know what the 'material' was before they came in contact with it, something... in fact, quite a few 'somethings'... are bad wrong.

As mentioned, this isn't a difficult thing to fix, even as simple as having 2-way radio communication between crews and 'someone' who has access to all the hazardous-cargo information at their fingertips... stands to reason that such a 'someone' would be in the central dispatch facility involved. Then provide sensible employee protection (perhaps as simple as gloves, disposable plastic coveralls, respirators/masks, etc) in convenient locations. It isn't hard to 'link' to a site with MSDS information for any of the cargos concerned, whether or not people were on the ball and demanded this of the consignor before accepting the shipment.

Hey, all you BNSF guys -- what's wrong with these ideas? Lets' discuss what is and isn't 'doable', and see whether we can get something set up that would be palatable to the guys with the money...

[Anonymous]

When I'm a conductor on a Piggy Back I won't leave Chicago without waybill information for every single trailer/container on the train. It has happened before when I spot a nobill and I talk to the Intermodal yardmaster and at least get them to ok me moving it so it is not my @$$ if something goes wrong. That's about all you can do.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by macguy

The hazmat info has to be accessible to the RR employees, when they are in the yard that generally means in the yard office.....

You don't see too many conductors carrying around all their paperwork while they switch......makes entraining and detraining a little difficult.

Almost any decent yard conductor or foreman carries a switch list. Remember, this was in a container so I doubt there would be a hazmat notation on a switch list however.

LC

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by n_stephenson

When I'm a conductor on a Piggy Back I won't leave Chicago without waybill information for every single trailer/container on the train. It has happened before when I spot a nobill and I talk to the Intermodal yardmaster and at least get them to ok me moving it so it is not my @$$ if something goes wrong. That's about all you can do.

Definitely the right thing to do. If you leave without the hazmat paperwork and placement in train you can be on the hook for some very hefty FRA fines, personally.

LC