NS Crew Fired After Graniteville Crash

[Justicar]

Railroad employees being "fired" is routine and a complete misnomer to many. Clearly, this incident that resulted in them being fired is extreme but depending on each employee's disciplinary history and the forthcoming official NS investigation the "firing" could very well be a suspension. Last I checked the rules stipulated communication between two members of the crew is mandatory in the case of restoring a mainline switch to its normal position. Since we still know very little about what happened its entirely possible that either the conductor or the brakemen informed the engineer that the switch was restored back to the main and to release the authority except that it wasn't true. This would relieve the engineer's responsibility if he wasn't in position to observe the switch directly. Just a couple weeks ago a conductor informed one of our engineers that the derail was down and ostensibly the engineer sensed something amiss and repeated the question a few more times. The conductor insisted it was down, the engineer backed up and cars derailed. Assuming he didn't deliberately derail his own train, he messed up and because the crew complied with the rule the engineer will walk. Next rule change will have you engineers walk back and visually verify everything we do before moving. ;)

[Anonymous]

My guess is that the crew of the parked train broke some operating rules. According to the story, the union has gotten involved and is appealing the termination.

I suspect railroads fire people everyday for rules violations. Given the severity of this accident, the public has been made more aware of what efforts the railroad makes to prevent it from happening again.

Erik

[Anonymous]

I feel sorry for them losing their jobs, but more sorry for Chris Seeling who lost his life and his Conductor who inhaled chlorine...

LC

[Anonymous]

This is the crew out of Columbia that are apparently responsible for the crash last month in South Carolina that left nine dead.

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/10823520.htm