NS accident triggers safety advisory

Railway Age, Feb, 2005

The Federal Railroad Administration has released a safety advisory in response to recent derailments involving inadvertently misaligned switches. According to FRA, the National Transportation Safety Board has indicated that a misaligned switch may have been one of the factors resulting in a Norfolk Southern freight train derailment on Jan. 6 in Graniteville, S.C. The train was diverted from a main track onto a siding and into the path of parked locomotives. Three locomotives and 15 cars derailed--one of which ruptured and released its chlorine contents, causing nine deaths, one of which was a railroad employee; evacuation of some 5,400 local residents; and medical treatment of 234 people. In another incident on Jan. 8, a Burlington Northern and Santa Fe freight train was unexpectedly diverted onto an industrial track in Bieber, Calif., striking two loaded grain cars and derailing seven locomotives and 14 cars. Two railroad employees were injured. Initial damages to equipment and track are more than $970,000.

FRA's new safety advisory states that more documentation and communication is needed to strengthen procedures for monitoring track switching operations. "Railroads should document when a manually operated switch in non-signaled territory is changed from the main track to a siding and returned to the normal position for main track movements," said FRA. "In addition, these actions should be communicated to all crewmembers and the train dispatcher."

"All railroads need to adopt the safety measures outlined in this advisory," said FRA Acting Administrator Robert D. Jamison. For more details, visit www.fra.dot.gov.