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2014 Railroad Safety

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2014 Railroad Safety
Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, April 16, 2015 6:05 PM

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by CatFoodFlambe on Thursday, April 16, 2015 10:02 PM
Think about it - today, if a railway worker dies as the result of an on-the-job "incident" - it's a film-at-11" event. The local news covers it. Not that many years ago, there was such a thing as an expected number of casualties.
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Posted by edblysard on Thursday, April 16, 2015 11:09 PM

Your point is?

23 17 46 11

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Posted by jeffhergert on Thursday, April 16, 2015 11:37 PM

It must be a mistake.  After all, we don't have PTC, ECP, on board sensors (derailed equipment, hot axle, etc) or any of the other gizmos or procedures called for by safety experts in government or on this forum deployed nation wide in everyday use.

Jeff 

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Posted by Wizlish on Friday, April 17, 2015 6:07 AM

jeffhergert
It must be a mistake.  After all, we don't have PTC, ECP, on board sensors (derailed equipment, hot axle, etc) or any of the other gizmos or procedures called for by safety experts in government or on this forum deployed nation wide in everyday use.

On the other hand, we still had over 1700 accidents in 2014, no few of which might have been either avoided or mitigated by sensors, gizmos, procedures or other things...

I would also play devil's advocate a bit and note that this report appears to be statistics-based, with no indication of severity of accidents being noted in the release.  That might well mean, for example, that there were even better safety gains in some areas -- say, those associated with better safety awareness gotten from better or more effective safety meetings or training -- but the numbers were dragged down by "exploding" oil trains and the like.  As I understand the methodology, an incident involving a crushed toe 'counts' the same as a sky full of progressive combustion for purposes of the analysis.  Non-statisticians might view this somewhat differently...

 

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Posted by oltmannd on Friday, April 17, 2015 7:24 AM

Wizlish
I would also play devil's advocate a bit and note that this report appears to be statistics-based, with no indication of severity of accidents being noted in the release. 

Those stats exist on the FRA web site.

 

-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/

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Posted by oltmannd on Friday, April 17, 2015 7:27 AM

jeffhergert

It must be a mistake.  After all, we don't have PTC, ECP, on board sensors (derailed equipment, hot axle, etc) or any of the other gizmos or procedures called for by safety experts in government or on this forum deployed nation wide in everyday use.

Jeff 

 

+1

There often is a case for regulation-improved safety since not all the benefits wind up in the pocket of those who have to pay for the improvment.   The problem is the path idea to implementation is often a hot mess, particularly of late.

-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/

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Posted by tree68 on Friday, April 17, 2015 11:09 AM

Those stats are probably low.  In the fire business, if you die as a result of a heart attack or other such issue within 24 hours of an incident, it counts as a line of duty death.

Last year we were under 100 deaths nation-wide in the fire service, but less than 30 were actual traumatic incidents.  The rest were health-related or the result of accidents enroute or returning.

If a company official is killed in an accident on a public highway, does that count against railroad safety?

 

LarryWhistling
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Posted by dehusman on Friday, April 17, 2015 11:14 AM

If he is on duty, yes.

Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com

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Posted by mudchicken on Friday, April 17, 2015 1:16 PM

dehusman

If he is on duty, yes.

 

dehusman

If he is on duty, yes.

 

Yes, even if he is hog-lawed and on his way into the barn. Seen that happen to several parked crew vans not to long ago.

The oil&gas + trucking industry are ever so slowly following the rail industry's lead...but the media won't get the hint or understand the big difference in safety performance. Still, any death or injury is not acceptable and there is a long way still to go.

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west

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