Saturday, January 31, 2015

TRAIN DERAILMENTS CAUSED BY HUMAN ERRORS ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO PLAN FOR AND INHERENTLY THE MOST DANGEROUS: HUMAN ERROR — UNINTENTIONALLY BACKING THE REAR OF A FREIGHT TRAIN ONTO ANOTHER RAIL LINE — CAUSED A TWO-TRAIN COLLISION AND DERAILMENT LAST JULY IN SLINGER, WI THAT PROMPTED THE EVACUATION OF MORE THAN 120 VILLAGE RESIDENTS AND THE SPILL OF 4,000 GALLONS OF DIESEL







TRAIN DERAILMENTS CAUSED BY HUMAN ERRORS ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO PLAN FOR AND INHERENTLY THE MOST DANGEROUS:   HUMAN ERROR — UNINTENTIONALLY BACKING THE REAR OF A FREIGHT TRAIN ONTO ANOTHER RAIL LINE — CAUSED A TWO-TRAIN COLLISION AND DERAILMENT LAST JULY IN SLINGER, WI THAT PROMPTED THE EVACUATION OF MORE THAN 120 VILLAGE RESIDENTS AND THE SPILL OF 4,000 GALLONS OF DIESEL



Human error — unintentionally backing the rear of a freight train onto another rail line — caused a two-train collision and derailment last July in Slinger that prompted the evacuation of more than 120 village residents, according to reports submitted to federal transportation officials.

The jumble of overturned locomotives, upended freight cars and broken track visible the next morning immediately south of Slinger High School amounted to more than $3.1 million in damages, say the incident reports publicly released by the Federal Railroad Administration.

An estimated 4,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled from the lead locomotive.
Minutes before the July 20 collision, a northbound Wisconsin & Southern Railroad train of two locomotives and 64 freight cars stopped after it had cleared the other track at the crossing of two rail lines east of Kettle Moraine Drive.

The engineer then decided to back up the long train — known as a shoving movement — to pick up a crew member at the rail crossing, according to the company's report.
Without the aid of a spotter at the train's end as it backed up, the engineer drove too far in reverse and several cars were pushed across the other rail line, according to the company's incident report. Federal regulations do not require a person to be placed at the end of a train when it is reversed.

By that time, a southbound Canadian National Railway Co. train with three locomotives and 98 freight cars already had entered the village and a signal light gave it authority to proceed into the crossing when the crash occurred at 8:34 p.m. It was traveling at a speed of 38 miles per hour, the company's report says.

Wisconsin & Southern officials in Madison did not respond to telephone messages and emails requesting comments on the crash.

On July 21, a Wisconsin & Southern official said the company was investigating if equipment failure or other emergency stopped the northbound train or delayed it from clearing the crossing before the arrival of the southbound Canadian National train.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has requested — but not yet received — the Federal Railroad Administration's accident investigation report of the Slinger crash.
All three of the Canadian National locomotives and four freight cars derailed in the violent collision. The company's report lists $1.86 million in equipment damage and $1.1 million in track damage.

Five cars derailed from the Wisconsin & Southern train and the company's report lists damages of $219,844.
The reports cite "absence of man on or at leading end of movement" of the Wisconsin & Southern train as the primary cause of the crash. In short, no one was there to tell the engineer when to stop.

The Wisconsin & Southern report concedes that its train moved into the crossing without authority of a signal light and that is reported as a contributing cause of the crash.
Both the engineer and conductor on the southbound Canadian National train were injured in the crash and derailment. Neither crew member on the Wisconsin & Southern train was injured.

"We're fortunate," Wisconsin Railroad Commissioner Jeff Plale said of the small number of injuries. "It could have been an awful lot worse."
Human error caused 687, or 39%, of all train accidents in the U.S. in 2013, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. The tally includes five in Wisconsin last year.
Of the national total, the absence of a person at the leading end of a shoving movement was the third-most common, with a total of 65.

Human error has caused 444 train accidents in the U.S. so far this year (2014). Twelve occurred in Wisconsin.

Of the national total this year, the absence of a person at the leading end of a shoving movement was the second-most common, with a total of 48.

Wisconsin & Southern Railroad's brief report of the crash to federal regulators does not explain why its employee could not walk to rejoin the train without getting picked up.
Weather was not a consideration. It was a warm summer evening with clear skies and a temperature of 70 degrees at the time of the crash.