The 47-car train included two tank cars that contained thousands of gallons of molten phenol acid, a toxic ingredient of paints and dyes that is harmful when it is inhaled, ingested, or comes into contact with the skin. Twenty-two cars were loaded with freight, mainly paper and lumber, and the 25 other cars were empty. The locomotive was at full throttle when the train was finally stopped after traveling for two hours through three counties in northern Ohio.

The train was scheduled to travel just one mile, but instead went 66 miles, at times within 50 feet of homes and businesses. CSX workers tried to veer it off the tracks at two spots. Rescue workers feared that the train would derail into houses as it headed through Finlay and Bowling Green, a city of nearly 30,000 people. At one point police evacuated about 100 workers from a meat processing plant near the village of North Baltimore.

With no one at the controls, there were no whistles to alert oncoming cars at road crossings, and of course nobody to slow it down. An air ambulance flew above in case of a derailment or collision.

Finally, a CSX engineer succeeded in coupling a "catch engine" to the rear of the train and applying the brakes. This maneuver slowed the train to about 10 miles per hour as other workers ran alongside. United Transportation Union member Jon Hosfeld was then able to jump onto the moving train and pulled its emergency brake. The train’s final resting place was just north of Kenton, Ohio. Fortunately, nobody got hurt.

At first authorities claimed there was an engineer on board who had suffered a heart attack. But rescue workers rapidly confirmed that was not true.

After a daylong investigation, Alan Crown, executive vice president for transportation at CSX Corp., issued a statement claiming the incident resulted from an engineer accidentally pulling a throttle instead of a brake. His statement said, "Prior to dismounting the locomotive to line a switch, [the engineer] intended to engage the three types of brakes on the locomotive. He applied two brakes, but then inadvertently grabbed the throttle lever instead of the third braking lever."

The train was equipped with a safety device called an alerter that, if working properly, should have stopped the train within minutes. "CSX, based in Jacksonville, [Florida] does not know why it did not do that," stated an article in the Miami Herald. There are other sensor safety devices available to railroad bosses that can be placed on the rails to stop trains if they get on the wrong track or if brakes fail going down mountain passes.

The explanation the company gave for the cause of this accident didn’t sit well with many of my co-workers. Eugene Kinchen, an engineer, pointed out that the brakes and the throttle on this type of engine are a foot apart. And the throttle goes in the opposite direction of that of the brake, a fact that raises questions about the company’s version of the events. Another worker said he could not imagine how a train could get out of the yard without someone in the train tower not noticing that it didn’t have a crew on it.

A veteran rail worker pointed out that before the Crew Consist agreement, which reduced the size of crews working on each train from six or seven workers down to two or three, you would never hear of an engineer dismounting the engine to throw a switch and leaving the engine control unmanned and vulnerable to this type of situation.

Another worker jokingly said that maybe this was CSX’s way of going one better in trying to reduce the crew size on trains by not having anyone operate them.

The merger of CSX and Conrail railroad in 1999 has led to further downsizing of crews, resulting in worsening safety conditions for the workforce and the surrounding communities. The Union Pacific Railroad had undergone a similar process the year before.  
 
Rail companies cut corners on safety
A recent segment appearing on the CBS TV program 60 Minutes offered a glimpse of this truth. It told of the billions of dollars in profits the railroads have made since the recent rail mergers. It also pointed out how little of those profits have been put back into the equipment and track of the newly merged, highly profitable railroads. While the railroad bosses self-servingly claim that "human error" is to blame for most "accidents," in many cases it is found to be faulty equipment or ill-repaired track conditions that are the root causes of these incidents.

One of the ways rail companies try to deflect blame from themselves for safety problems is by establishing an inordinate number of "rules" that workers are required to know and practice. The rail bosses contend that following these rules will prevent accidents. In reality, the bosses pressure workers to give more priority to delivering products quickly and to raising "productivity" than to carrying out the rules, which they use to profess concern about safety, while at the same time using them to threaten disciplinary action against workers.

It is rail workers, not the companies, that are concerned about safety and health. The fight to demand safety on the job is a responsibility of the union movement. Today, workers in a range of industries are seeking to use the power of their unions to fight back. From meat packers in Long Prairie, Minnesota, opposing the brutal speedup of the production line, to coal miners combating the conditions that lead to repeated mine deaths, safety is a crucial union issue.

It will only be when workers themselves have control over setting job conditions that they and society as a whole can feel safe and free from the employers’ drive to sacrifice safety for profits.

Kay Sedam is a member of the United Transportation Union and an engineer at CSX Railroad in Hialeah, Florida.  
 
 
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