(The following article by Caroline Zaayer was posted on the Baltimore Sun website on January 3.)
BALTIMORE, Md. — News footage of derailed trains crumpled and scattered across the tracks might be impressive to look at, but such wrecks represent a small fraction of all train derailments.
In Maryland the most common type of train accident between 2001 and 2004 was a derailment in which the train was moving less than 10 mph and caused no injuries, according to a Capital News Service analysis of Federal Railroad Administration data.
The number of such low-speed derailments has been rising in Maryland – from 10 in 2001 to 26 in 2004 – according to the data. This trend has not gone unnoticed by the railroad administration, which, with its Railroad Safety Advisory Committee, is seeking ways to reduce train accidents.
Nationally, human error is the leading cause of train accidents, accounting for 38.4 percent. A majority of those occur on low-speed tracks, typically in the train yard, according to the railroad administration.
The agency collects data on most freight and commuter trains in the country except those that operate on tracks that are not part of the general railroad system, such as Washington’s Metrorail.
Derailments occurring in Maryland when trains were moving slower than 10 mph caused about $1.7 million in track and equipment damage between 2001 and 2004, and 36 percent of them were attributed to human error, according to the data.
The No. 1 human error, nationally and in Maryland, was an improperly lined switch, which means a train was routed the wrong way because the track was misaligned at a split.
While none of the low-speed derailments in Maryland resulted in injury, an improperly lined switch last January on a high-speed track in South Carolina is blamed for an accident that killed nine people, according to the Federal Railroad Administration.
Although most of the accidents and derailments occur on low-speed tracks, the railroad administration warned that they still pose a threat of injury and death, and the mistakes that cause many of them are errors that could be fatal on faster tracks.
The railroad administration requires railroad companies to establish formal procedures, and employees are disciplined when they violate the rules. However, few of the most common human mistakes are addressed in federal regulations and are dealt with by individual railroads.
Low-speed tracks, such as those in yards, have fewer federal standards than high-speed tracks, said Steve Kulm, a spokesman for the railroad administration. The agency is recommending federal action against the most common violations.
The Railroad Safety Advisory Committee is expected to present recommendations this spring for curbing the number of accidents, Kulm said, and the Federal Railroad Administration plans to have proposed rules by September.
Federalized standards don’t always take into account local conditions, said Tom White, spokesman for the Association of American Railroads, which is a member of the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee. Whether new federal standards will be a step toward increased safety remains to be seen, he said.
The committee is made up of members from railroad companies, unions and transportation boards. White said the committee has reached a consensus on safety issues in the past.
The Federal Railroad Administration requires accidents to be reported only if there is more than $6,700 damage to track and equipment, an amount that hasn’t been changed in several years, said Chris Barkan, director of the railroad engineering program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
While the damage threshold has not risen, the cost of steel has risen 30 percent in the past two to three years, Barkan said, and because of rising repair costs, more accidents might exceed the $6,700 limit.
He said it’s possible that the number of accidents has not gone up, and that there are simply more that have to be reported. Barkan said a study needs to be done to see how much repair costs have increased and what effect that has had.
Railroads in Maryland are monitored by Federal Railroad Administration inspectors and state inspectors who enforce federal regulation along with state standards, said Joe Sokolsky, the state’s chief inspector.
State inspectors look at how many derailments occur in a particular yard and look for patterns that might suggest the cause, Sokolsky said.
The inspectors also check that crew members conduct periodic inspections.
The larger, more damaging accidents on the main lines have been reduced over the years, and their numbers remain low, Barkan said. He said the railroad is the safest of the transportation industries.