(The Clinton Herald posted the following story by Scott T. Holland on its website on October 7.)
CLINTON, Iowa — It took little discussion and a quick vote Monday for the Clinton County Board of Supervisors to approve a resolution calling for the Federal Railroad Administration to investigate the safety of remote control locomotives.
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers union members spoke to the supervisors last week to explain their opposition to the technology. They told the board remote controlled locomotives, which they said Union Pacific wants to implement in January, do not have a set of safety rules that railroads must follow.
BLE members said the FRA has issued a safety advisory for remote controlled locomotives but the union won’t be satisfied until the advisory or other guidelines are enacted into law.
Monday morning, the supervisors votes indicated they held the same concerns.
“With my past experience being on the fire department, I was down at the west yards on different derailments,” said Supervisor Grant Wilke. “(I saw) things where there was five crew members on a train switching and they still had a problem.”
The resolution calls on the FRA to conduct a comprehensive and thorough review of the safety of remote control locomotives and develop comprehensive regulations for the use of remote control locomotives to ensure the safety of the citizens of Clinton and Clinton County.
“I don’t think it really would work in our area,” Wilke said. “This resolution – I think it’s just to let them know that we feel, it has nothing to do with their doing business, it has to do with a safety thing in our area.”