Vol. 75/No. 17      May 2, 2011

Kenny, who had been employed at the BNSF Railway for 22 years, was well respected by his coworkers and will be deeply missed. He was widely known as “Tommy Two Notch” because he resisted railroad management pressure to run trains faster than he thought was safe.

Kenny’s tragic and unnecessary death was one of three that occurred on the afternoon of March 23. Also killed in the accident was conductor-trainee Christopher Loehr, 28, and crew shuttle driver Steven Sebastian, 60. The shuttle van they were traveling in was struck by a loaded grain train as it crossed the tracks in Longview, Washington. Conductor Dwight Hauck is hospitalized with serious injuries.

The rail crossing, like so many others, is not equipped with lights or gates to protect pedestrians or vehicular traffic. Crews had complained about this to the company. Bystander Jason Mickelson, who was at the scene of the accident, told Associated Press that other crossings in this high freight area were also inadequate. “Somebody died in another crossing without a signal on it,” he said.

The BNSF and other railroads refuse to properly safeguard thousands of crossings across the country. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, in 2009 there were nearly 2,000 rail crossing accidents, causing 245 deaths and 708 other injuries. Crew shuttle vans were, at one time, primarily operated by unionized railroad employees. The BNSF and Union Pacific railroads now subcontract most crew shuttle services to nonunion companies that provide low wages, poor working conditions, and inadequate training.

Chris Rayson and Geoff Mirelowitz are members of United Transportation Union Local 845 in Seattle.
 
 
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