(The Associated Press circulated the following article on April 27.)
WASHINGTON — Safety officials are questioning whether railroads and the government are doing enough to make sure engineers and conductors are sufficiently alert to operate trains.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the role fatigue may have played in the June 28 train crash near Macdona, Texas, which released chlorine that killed the train’s conductor and two women in a nearby house.
”The fatigue issue is certainly an industrywide problem,” said safety board member Richard Healing, who chaired the board of inquiry.
The NTSB’s unusual two-day hearing, which concluded Wednesday, took place at a time of growing concern about fatal railroad accidents.
The deadliest hazardous materials crash in nearly three decades took place on Jan. 6, when a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed, releasing chlorine that killed nine people, injured hundreds and forced the evacuation of thousands of residents of Graniteville, S.C.
The Macdona collision was just one in a series of train accidents near San Antonio last year that prompted Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, to sponsor a bill requiring higher safety standards for tracks and tank cars.
Congress plans a hearing Thursday to look into new technology for improving rail safety and security.
And many communities are watching to see what happens to a Washington, D.C., law barring the most hazardous materials from being shipped by rail through the city. It’s on hold as courts consider an appeal by CSX Transportation, the nation’s largest cargo railroad.
The American Association of Railroads says 99.998 percent of hazardous materials carloads arrive at their destination without a release caused by a train accident.
The NTSB hasn’t determined what caused the Macdona crash, in which a Union Pacific Railroad freight train collided with a BNSF Railway Co. entering a siding.
Safety investigators are perplexed because the train slowed at a point where it didn’t have to, the throttle moved for no clear reason, and the train apparently accelerated through yellow lights and blasted right through the red signal at 45 mph.
The engineer, who was in a coma for 10 days, remembers little of the accident. The only other person who would know what happened in the locomotive cab — the conductor — perished from the chlorine gas.
As a result of Wednesday’s hearing, the safety board might recommend changes in the laws governing how many hours railroad employees may work.
Arturo Cadena, the Union Pacific engineer, worked a grueling schedule in the days before the Monday morning crash. He said the uncertainty of his start times made it hard to plan rest.
”You never know if it’s your turn or not,” Cadena said. ”If you say ‘no,’ they’ll call you back, so rather than being awakened all night I’ll go.”
On the Friday before the accident, Cadena started work at 5:50 a.m. and was released from duty at 4:15 p.m. He started again that night at 2 a.m. and finished at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. Eight hours later he was back at work, finishing up at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, only to return at 2:45 a.m. the morning of the accident.
Cadena was legally rested, according to Federal Railroad Administration testimony.
Grady Cothen, the FRA’s deputy associate administrator, said the agency doesn’t have the power to change the rules because they were set by Congress.
Union Pacific and the FRA say the railroad has improved its safety practices since the accident.
Gary Davidson, formerly superintendent of the railroad’s San Antonio unit, said Union Pacific was short-handed back then.
”We’re never going to let this happen to us again,” Davidson said. ”We learned, kind of the hard way, a better way of doing business.”