(The following story by Peter Gartrell appeared on the News-Record website on August 6.)
GILLETTE, Wyo. — A 59-year-old railroad worker was killed instantly when the crane he was operating fell off the tracks Thursday morning east of Gillette.
Federal investigators and BNSF Railway officials on Friday continued their investigation into the death of Charles Willey, a Chappell, Neb., man who fellow workers told law enforcement officials had been living with his wife in a mobile home in Newcastle.
It was still unclear this morning what caused the crane to tip over as it worked on and around a bridge, officials from several agencies said.
The day before, the crane’s 60-foot boom rested on a railroad fence that marked the southern boundary of railroad property as fire crews, sheriff’s deputies and more than a dozen BNSF Railway SUVs converged on the bridge. The crane had been working at the site just over the Crook County line off Highway 51.
The accident was reported shortly before noon.
“The boom was all the way over the right-of-way fence,” said Crook County Coroner Mike Frolander, who said Willey died of “crush injuries.”
BNSF Railway workers, managers and investigators on the scene refused to be quoted or let people near the crane. A BNSF Railway spokesman in Seattle said that Willey had been working with a pile driver on a main track that continues to Alliance, Neb.
Campbell County Undersheriff Scott Matheny said deputies who responded to the scene believe Willey was swinging the boom at an angle that caused the crane to lose its balance and fall over. His agency was not investigating the crash and no one involved in the investigation would comment on a cause.
“The best I can tell you is we are investigating, that’s a fact,” said Steve Kulm, a Washington, D.C., spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration, which had two investigators on scene.
“It somehow tipped over and the result is fatality,” BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said. “This is an unfortunate situation for everyone involved.”
BNSF had three deaths systemwide in 2006.
The crane, which sat on railroad track while it operated with a crew of five or six people, was manufactured by American & Ohio Locomotive Crane Co. Railroad employees familiar with the cranes said there was only one on the Powder River Division, which spans from Colorado to Montana, and that American had stopped manufacturing the models because of low demand.
In recent years, railroads have tended to prefer cranes that sit off the track for such maintenance.