Railroad accidents, derailments and fatalities have declined in Montana and other parts of the country in the past 10 years, according to data from the Federal Railroad Administration. The FRA reports that the decline is a reflection of efforts to enhance safety and by efforts in Montana specifically to communicate better with federal regulators, and to detect any trends. According […]
Rail Accidents Have Declined 55% in Montana in Past Decade
Amtrak Train Crash Kills 2 and Injures 116 in South Carolina
An Amtrak train traveling from New York City to Miami slammed into a freight train in the early morning hours of Feb. 4, killing at least two people and injured 116 others. Thousands of gallons of fuel also were spilled. Amtrak stated that the train was carrying eight crew and 139 passengers when it struck a CSX train near Cayce, […]
DOT Urges Railroads to Implement Automatic Braking By End of 2018
The Department of Transportation stated this month that railroads must act urgently to meet a Dec. 31, 2018 deadline to adopt automatic braking technology. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao made the statement in a letter she sent to 47 of the nation’s railroads in early January. Chao’s urgent call to action came a few weeks after an Amtrak train derailed Dec. […]
NTSB Finds Amtrak Flaws Led to Fatal PA Train Crash
Federal railroad safety investigators concluded last month that a culture of safety lapses at Amtrak is what caused a collision between a passenger train and a backhoe that killed two Amtrak workers and injured 39 outside Philadelphia in April 2016. Federal investigators determined that Amtrak workers at the site lacked critical safety equipment that the railroad required that would have […]
US Government to Investigate Growing Length of Freight Trains
US Congress will be investigating the safety of freight trains that are growing increasingly longer operated by CSX, Union Pacific, and other major railroads to increase profitability, according to the US Government Accountability Office. As of 2017, train length is unregulated in the United States. Any effort to add rules to restrict train length will face strong railroad industry opposition […]
Fatal Indiana Train Crossing Crash Prompts Concerns About Safety
A railroad crossing accident that killed a 74-year-old woman in Edinburgh, Indiana is sparking new worries about crossing safety across the state. The woman, Sharon Gobin, was killed after her car was hit by a train that was rolling through downtown Edinburgh at 1 PM on November 20. The accident is still under investigation, but it has been confirmed that […]
Cleveland Has One of the Most Dangerous Crossings in the US
Reports from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) show that a Cleveland, Ohio train crossing is one of the most dangerous in the United States. The FRA report states that the crossing is at the 8200 block of Bessemer Avenue in Cleveland. The report indicates that the crossing is in the top 15 of railroad crossings in the US with 12 […]
Truck Driver Awarded Millions After Railroad Injury Lawsuit
A jury in Tyler, Texas awarded more than $8 million to a truck driver from East Texas who suffered serious injuries in a railroad accident in May 2015. The truck driver was injured while he was unloading a feed truck into a train car at a trans-loading facility in Mt. Vernon, Texas. The railroad conductor told the truck driver to get […]
Commuter Rails Systems To Receive Millions to Boost Safety
At least 17 of the top commuter and intercity railroads will receive millions of dollars in funding from the US government to increase rail safety with automatic braking systems that are intended to automatically slow down trains that are in potentially dangerous situations. The Department of Transportation stated last month that it would issue $197 million in funding after commuter […]
Virginia Rail Express Adding Safety Technology to Rail Lines
Work is continuing in Virginia to install Positive Train Control (PTC) onto railroad tracks that experts say could have prevented many recent, fatal train accidents, such as in Hoboken, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Virginia Rail Express (VRE), a popular commuter rail line in the state and in the metro Washington DC area, stated in early March 2017 that it […]