FRA Issues Safety Bulletin on Close Clearances Following Conductor Trainee Fatality

Following the Aug. 6 fatality of a conductor trainee during a yard shoving move, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has released a new Safety Bulletin to “encourage railroads to identify locations where clearance specific safety issues could occur.”

According to FRA’s preliminary investigation of the incident, the trainee and conductor were both riding on the same side of two intermodal well cars when the movement approached three parked locomotives on an adjacent track. The shove movement continued despite the track centers becoming narrower. The conductor was able to position himself to pass the locomotives, but the trainee could not and received fatal crushing injuries.

FRA requests that railroads review this Safety Bulletin (download below) with employees to “increase awareness of the dangers of close clearances when riding moving equipment and ensure employees who ride moving equipment do so safely,” to include:

• “Railroads should review their training programs to ensure the programs are adequate to prepare employees to identify close clearance and equipment fouling situations while riding equipment. Training programs should ensure that employees overseeing trainees possess sufficient experience and understanding of their duties to adequately impart a safety-first mindset and proper instruction to trainees they oversee.
  
  
• “Railroads should identify yard and main line close clearance tracks where employees should not ride equipment and post those findings in the railroads operating rules, special instructions, and timetables. Additionally, railroads should consider marking all permanent close/no clearances with highly visible signs.
  
  
• “Employees should only ride equipment when necessary for job duties, and only after the process for doing so is discussed in a job briefing. Further, employees should only ride equipment after determining it is safe to do so.
  
  
• “Railroads should review with their employees Switching Operations Fatality Analysis (SOFA) Safety Alert – August 2023. That alert is available on FRA’s website here. The SOFA Working Group is a voluntary, non-regulatory, workplace safety partnership formed to identify commonalities among fatalities that occur during switching operations.”