The BLET continues to expose the dangers of remote control train operations after three tragic pedestrian incidents — including a fatality — in Buffalo, New York. The lead story on Page 1 of the September 22 issue of the Buffalo News says it all: “Driverless trains maim, kill East Side residents.”
While railroads continue to insist the technology is safe, the carnage in Buffalo tells a different story. Over the past 12 months, one resident was killed and two other suffered life-altering amputations in incidents involving unmanned remote control trains near CSXT’s Frontier Yard in Buffalo.
BLET leaders worked behind the scenes with reporters and editors at the Buffalo News for several months leading up to publication of the article. BLET National Vice President Jim Louis commented on a particularly disturbing Buffalo tragedy, which involved a nine-year-old boy who chased his ball under a remote control train and lost a leg as a result: “There’s not somebody here watching what’s going on,” Louis said. “There’s no second set of eyes. In this case, there were no eyes whatsoever.”
The family of the nine-year-old has filed a lawsuit against CSXT and the City of Buffalo, accusing them of negligence for leaving the train tracks so easily accessible.
Since last year, when the Houston Chronicle published BLET National President Eddie Hall’s column about Union Pacific’s use of remotes, the BLET has led a national campaign to make the public aware of the dangers of remote control locomotives, and to expose the rail industry’s callous disregard for safety. Other major news stories featuring BLET leaders have appeared in the New York Times and multiple times in the Associated Press (October 2023 and August 2024).
BLET National President Eddie Hall said: “The September 22 article in the Buffalo News is another part of our ongoing campaign to sound the alarm about these questionable remote control practices, which put railroad workers and the general public at risk.”