CLEVELAND, April 18 — Brother Tom Anderson, President of BLET Division 642, was one of two rail workers killed in the line of duty on April 17 in a rear-end collision involving two BNSF Railway freight trains in McPherson, Iowa.
According to preliminary reports from the NTSB, a BNSF freight train collided with a BNSF maintenance train. Two locomotives and multiple cars derailed as a result of the accident.
Brother Anderson, 48, joined the BLET on January 1, 2000.
Also killed in the accident was UTU conductor Patricia Hyatt.
“On behalf of the BLET National Division I extend my deepest sympathies to the families of all those involved in this tragedy,” BLET National President Dennis R. Pierce said.
Anderson is the third BLET member killed in 2011. On February 8, 2011, Stanley L. Watts, Secretary-Treasurer of BLET Division 354, was killed in a Norfolk Southern switching accident in Kankakee, Ill.
On March 23, 2011, Thomas J. Kenny of BLET Division 238 was killed when his off-duty transport vehicle was hit by a BNSF freight train near Longview, Wash.
BLET National Secretary-Treasurer Bill Walpert, who leads the BLET’s Safety Task Force, said STF Coordinator Carl Fields is in route to McPherson, Iowa, to assist the NTSB in its investigation of the tragedy. McPherson is about 35 miles southeast of Council Bluffs, Iowa.
More details will be provided as information becomes available.