WASHINGTON — A “lack of awareness” by the operator of maintenance equipment, incomplete communication regarding the movement of that machine, and its non-operational change-of-direction alarm have been cited as the probable cause and contributing factors in the death of a CSX maintenance-of-way foreman in a February 2024 incident in North Carolina.
The National Transportation Safety Board reached those conclusions in its final investigation report released on Thursday, May 1.
The 41-year-old foreman was struck and killed by a ballast regulator in the incident during track resurfacing at about 1:38 p.m. on Feb, 13, 2024, at Roanoke Rapids, about 8 miles from the Virginia-North Carolina state line [see “NTSB to investigate CSX employee death …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 13, 2024].
The ballast regulator struck the foreman after reversing to cross a roadway; the machine’s operator said he had not seen the foreman standing in the track gage before the accident, and had not received any communcation to alert him to the foreman’s presence. Along with watching for other equipment and employees, the machine’s operator was required by CSX rules to sound the horn before moving in reverse; witnesses said the horn was not sounded, and post-accident tests by the NTSB found a change-of-direction alarm on the machine was not operational. With no horn or alarm, the foreman received no warning of the ballast regulator’s movement.
The accident led to an alert from the Fatality Analysis of Maintenance-of-Way Employees and Signalmen Committee on Feb. 15, 2025. It also led CSX to issue its own safety alert, and to company rule changes, including establishing a larger “red zone” distance around roadway equipment and additional job briefings, notification of changes in work plans, and instructions on sounding the horn if the change-of-direction alarm is inoperative.
CSX has also demonstrated a new collision-avoidance technology for maintenance equipment, and has a goal of installing it on 300 machines this year.
Non working backup alarm? Just shaking my head….