A sparking defect 23 cars deep in the train should have been seen by the crew.
I’m sure that investigators will also be keen regarding the use of dynamic brakes. Improper use of dynamic brakes results in high buffing forces in the train consist as the rear of the train slams into the front. This rapid bunching of the cars has caused a number of derailments.
WHO are these “dispatchers”? Who are the board members and management types who are okay with this?
They all need to be publicly shamed, villified, made pariahs at work and at home. That’s the only way they’ll ever stop and think about the consequences - when there are personal consequences for THEM and their families. When their neighbors give them grief and when their kids are shunned at school. They need to KNOW that there are consequences for their flippant attitudes towards others.
I’m not a fan of piling on children for the actions of their parents. But I can pretty well guarantee you that if you’re a parent and you know that there will be consequences for your decisions that may come back at you and your family, you’ll think twice about whether your put the company first or humanity and your family first.
Underpaid RR employees who work too many hours?
Punch UP not DOWN.
There is a book of rules that road crews and dispatchers are responsible for knowing. There is very little room for employee discretion. In the longer term, there are also very few opportunities for working people to change those rules. The only chance employees have of changing the rules is if their union backs them and they are able to force the companies to change.
The only benefit to working in the dispatch center as opposed to out on the road is that it’s inside work and there are far fewer opportunities to be killed or injured.
If you read the NTSB prelim report (scroll back for link) you will see that the hot bearing did not exceed the point at which stopping the train was mandatory until it exceeded that “stop” temperature by a BUNCH and the train crew was in the process stopping that when the train derailed.
It’s the money people that are the problem, not the working people.
I used to carry the Book of Rules in my back pocket when on duty. I’d keep a timetable in my grip so I’d have it when called for a road trip.
Dispatchers have the same books at their fingertips.
The thing that separates trainmen and dispatchers most is the latter sleep in their own beds and have scheduled time off.
Most trainmen are working on first-in-first-out extra boards. The only schedule here is that you get a federally mandated break of 8 hours (10 hours if the last assignment was over 12 hours) before the RR can call you for another assignment.
Industry media article about tank car performance. Looks like most of the “pressure relief devices” worked as designed but at least some didn’t (article suggest why based on NTSB findings, which I have not read but will dig for). This is not blood, but the book of rules is also written in findings from crash analysis (which, actually, is better than blood).
The VRWC has made this into a shit-show, of course, but it doesn’t seem like there was any conspiracy by the private sector corporations (the ones who VRWC members support through regulation repeal) that would have caused this. Doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be updated rules.
Edit: the article has a link to the PHMSA memo to tank car owners that outlines what appears to have been a post-derailment contributing failure.
Don’t take this to mean that I think NS is blameless. This is a company that made their train crews shit in bags instead of installing proper chemical toilets like every other railroad does.
All (maybe there are some exceptions among the bigs?) the RRs run their employees “on their rest”. As noted, RR employees in certain crafts can only work so many hours in a row before they must be allowed rest. Railroads, for years, particularly since deregulation, have run their employees ragged by making them show up for work as soon as their mandatory rest period is complete. This is not healthy, of course, and if it is done continuously, is obviously dangerous.
(This mostly applies to the two eastern roads, NS and CSX, the two western roads, UP and BNSF, and the two Canadian roads that have extensive US operations, CN and CP [who are buying KCS] - everything else is a regional RR or a shortline and probably are not actively trying to kill their employees the way the big ones are.)