NTSB says rule violations played role in 2024 UP maintenance-of-way fatality

WASHINGTON — The Union Pacific employee killed in an April 11, 2024, maintenance-of-way accident in McNeil, Ark., entered the work zone of an excavating machine without informating the operator, a violation of UP rules, the National Transportation Safety Board said in its final report on the incident.

Contributing factors, according to the report issued Monday (April 14, 2025), were workers’ failure to comply with safety procedures, and inadequate safety oversight by UP and contractor B&P Enterprises.

The incident came while workers were installing a culvert as part of repairs following a washout. The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office identified the worker who was killed as Danny Brent Wilkins, 43, of Rison, Ark. [see “Worker killed during UP track repairs …,” Trains News Wire, April 12, 2024].

He was struck by the bucket of a hi-rail excavator and was momentarily pinned between the bucket and the tread of the machine, and was declared dead at the scene despite life-saving measures attempted by other workers.

The NTSB’s investigation determined that throughout the day, workers had moved in and out of the excavator’s work zone without communicating those moves by direct communication with the excavator operator, by radio, or through hand signals. “If the manager had complied with UP’s rules … the operator would have stopped all movements of the excavator,” the report says, ‘and this accident would likely not have happened.”

The fatality led to an FRA bulletin regarding working around on-track equipment [see “FRA issues safety bulletin …,” News Wire, April 24, 2024]. An alert from a committee representing maintenance and signal workers also called for the risks from maintenance machinery to be included in job briefings, while UP revised its rules to reinforce the need for clear communication in work zones.