Fatal Train Crashes Spur Inspection Plan

Reacting to three freight train crashes that killed seven people in less than two months, federal regulatory officials on Tuesday announced an unprecedented, round-the-clock inspection of the Union Pacific Railroad.

Federal Railroad Administrator Jolene M. Molitoris said a preliminary review of the crashes--two in Texas and one in Kansas--has unearthed evidence of “critical safety deficiencies” at the nation’s largest railroad.

She did not elaborate, but officials said that over the past year, problems have been noted with Union Pacific’s dispatch, train control, training and hazardous materials procedures.

The systemwide probe will concentrate on the railroad’s facilities in Los Angeles; Sacramento; Chicago; Denver; Fort Worth; Houston; San Antonio; Kansas City, Mo.; Omaha; Pocatello, Idaho; and Portland, Ore., the Federal Railroad Administration said.

Mike Furtney, a spokesman for the railroad, said Union Pacific “will cooperate fully” with the agency.

The investigation, which will be conducted by 50 to 60 specially trained inspectors, is part of a rail administration effort to take a more active and visible role in developing and enforcing safety regulations.

Accused by the chairman of the National Transportation Board and other critics of foot-dragging in the past, the railroad agency has vowed to do better, and Molitoris has said that “aggressive action” would be the hallmark of her term as chief.

The safety board is conducting its own investigations to determine the cause of the three Union Pacific accidents.

The first occurred June 22, when two freight trains crashed head-on on a stretch of single track about 30 miles west of San Antonio. The collision killed two crewmen and two men who had sneaked a ride on the train. Safety board sources say the accident appears to have been caused by a dispatcher’s failure to relay a message telling the northbound train to wait on a siding until the southbound train had passed.

The second crash, on July 2, occurred when a train on a siding moved forward into a switch and struck the side of a passing freight near Delia, Kan. The engineer of the train on the siding was killed. Robert Lauby, the safety board’s chief rail crash investigator, said that crew fatigue may have been a factor in the accident.

The third crash occurred last week near Fort Worth. Lauby said four unmanned locomotives had been parked on a downhill siding, but the hand brake apparently had been set on only one of them. When that brake apparently failed, the locomotives started to roll, coasting onto a main line and eventually reaching speeds of close to 60 mph.

The locomotives rolled undetected for almost 10 miles before slamming head-on into another locomotive pulling a freight train. Two engineers on the freight train were killed.

Officials said there have been five other incidents since January that claimed the lives of five other Union Pacific employees. Details of these were not provided.

Furtney, the Union Pacific spokesman, said that while all the incidents are tragic, they do not reflect a trend, either for Union Pacific or for the railroad industry as a whole.