(The following story by Timothy O’Connor appeared on the News-Dispatch website on December 1.)
LA PORTE, Ind. — There was potential for derailment when alleged thieves forced freight trains to make emergency stops, a Federal Railroad Administration spokesman said.
According to a federal indictment, the men, Norfolk Southern conductors James Newland and Victor Montorsi, and engineer John Frederick, met to listen to radio communications from trains.
The three, who were occasionally helped by Phillip and William Montorsi, allegedly forced slow-moving trains to make emergency stops by removing the pins between cars or disconnecting the air-brake hose.
“What it would cause is an abrupt stop,” Warren Flatau said. “There are circumstances where, conceivably, a car could derail.”
He said the extent of a possible derailment would depend on a number of factors, such as speed and train length, but that it could be as minimal as one wheel detaching from the rail.
“It kind of underscores the significance of this because these are individuals who had nefarious intentions,” Flatau said.
He said that in order to stop the trains and remove cargo, potential thieves would have to have knowledge of the train. Since freight containers are placed with their doors facing one another, Flatau said it was likely necessary to uncouple the cars in order to access their loads.
“It’s not easy to do that,” he said. “You’d have to have some knowledge. It would appear that these individuals knew what they were doing. It is not a straight forward thing to uncouple a car, especially if air brake hoses are involved.”
He added that large railroad companies, like Norfolk Southern and CSX – from which the goods were allegedly stolen – often use all their engineers as a set of eyes to ensure the safety of locomotives. However, this isn’t foolproof.
“They can’t always walk a mile-long train,” Flatau said.
Further, he said, many railroads instruct their employees to stay inside the train during a theft since they wouldn’t know if the thieves were armed or not.
Representatives from CSX did not return phone calls, and Norfolk Southern declined comment.