NS mechanical department sets injury ratio
record in '08
Last year, Norfolk Southern Railway’s mechanical department registered a reportable injury ratio
of 0.53 — the lowest-ever ratio achieved by any NS operating department, according to the Class
I.
A safety performance metric, the ratio represents the number of reportable injuries for every
200,000 manhours worked. The mechanical department, manned by 5,800 employees who
maintain the railroad's 3,976 locomotives and 94,660 freight cars, logged a total 11.9 million
manhours in 2008.
"Safety is not the result of rules, practices, engineering and enforcement. These things are
integral to the safety process, but they don't make people work safely," said Steve Tobias, NS’
vice chairman and chief operating officer, in a prepared statement. "What causes a person to
work safely and what causes a company to be centered on safety is when safety becomes the core
value of the individual and the company."
Yesterday, NS honored the achievements of the mechanical department and other NS
departments at its annual safety awards meeting, which was held in Norfolk, Va. The Class I has
conducted the event every year since 1987.
Former Norfolk Southern worker files FELA suit
2/24/2009 5:41 PM
By
Kelly Holleran
A former Norfolk Southern Railway Company employee claims he was injured because of his 32 years of work for the company.
Randy L. Bentley claims that throughout his career on the railroad from 1976 until 2008, he was subjected to numerous repetitive traumas while repairing railroad tracks.
Because of his work, Bentley sustained severe and permanent injuries to his neck, back, spine, wrists, feet and body and has suffered great pain and mental anguish, according to the complaint filed Feb. 18 in Madison County Circuit Court.
He also lost money and earnings he would have been entitled to and incurred medical expenses, the suit states.
He claims Norfolk Southern was negligent by failing to provide safe and suitable tools and equipment, by failing to furnish him with necessary equipment, by failing to furnish him with proper protective equipment, by failing to provide him with proper supervision, by failing to warn him of reasonably foreseeable hazardous conditions and by allowing unsafe practices to become standard.
The railway also negligently assigned Bentley work that it knew would result in injury, assigned Bentley duties that it knew were beyond his physical capacity, failed to provide a reasonably safe place to work and safe work methods and failed to provide sufficient manpower to perform the tasks assigned, according to the complaint.
Gregory M. Tobin of Pratt and Tobin in East Alton will be representing him.
Madison County Circuit Court case number: 09-L-0140.
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NS AGAIN REBUFFED ON WALKWAY SAFETY
CHICAGO -- A federal appeals court in Illinois has turned back a second Norfolk Southern attempt to evade an Illinois regulation requiring safe walkways in its yards, holding that the NS legal challenge was as slippery as some of the walkways it provides its employees. Since the Illinois Commerce Commission imposed the requirement for safer rail-yard walkways in 2004, Norfolk Southern has been seeking to overturn the requirement. In December 2007, a federal district court rejected the NS appeal and gave Illinois regulators the go-ahead to being enforcing the 2004 "Safe Walkways" regulation, which mandates that all newly constructed and reconstructed yard tracks within Illinois include safety features that prevent employees from losing their footing while working on the ground.
The regulation also gives the state authority to order walkway improvements for existing tracks where
conditions are shown to be hazardous. NS appealed that federal district court decision, and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals on Feb. 11 again told the railroad to comply and to put the safety of its employees first. The railroad argued that federal law supersedes any state laws or regulations regarding railroad safety. But the district court, in a decision affirmed by the appellate court, determined that the Federal Railroad Administration has not adopted any regulation "covering the subject matter" of paths adjoining railroad tracks and that the Illinois regulation does "not conflict" with any federal safety laws or objectives. Said the appellate court: "Illinois allows the railroads considerable discretion over the size, placement, and materials for the walkways," and if its construction materials or methods of walkway construction interfere with track drainage and track stability, then "Norfolk Southern must try to work these details out with the [Illinois Commerce Commission.]" More specifically, Illinois requires that employee walkways covered by the regulation must have a minimum width of two-feet, and any ballast used must be no bigger than ¾-inch in diameter, and must be spread in a 2 uniform manner. Additionally, walkway slopes can rise or fall no more than one-inch in height for every eightinches in length or width, and walkways must be free of obstacles, including rocks, equipment and debris.
The UTU began lobbying for the walkways regulation in 2002 over the objection of NS, with the UTU
providing state regulators evidence of tripping and falling accidents on walkways.
Assisting in the defense of the regulation was the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Division’s director of education and safety, Rick Inclima, who served as an expert witness on behalf of the state without any personal compensation
Health board to inspect railroad housing
State rules mandate “mobile camp” checks.
Posted on Tue. Oct. 07, 2008 - 10:21 am EDT
By Jennifer L. Boen
of The News-Sentinel
Under a new state rule, the Fort Wayne-Allen County Department of Health will soon have the additional responsibility of inspecting local “mobile camps” where railroad employees are housed for up to six weeks.
“Allen County is one of the larger depot sites,” where employees of Norfolk Southern Corp. set up a mobile camp, health department administrator Mindy Waldron told Board of Health members at their regular meeting Monday. The white railroad cars provide sleeping, dining, cooking and toilet facilities for traveling railroad workers.
The health department is now writing the local regulations that department inspectors, in conjunction with the county Building Department, will begin enforcing next year. Twelve to 15 camp cars are usually set up at one time, and the health department must be given at least two days' notice before the cars arrive.
“This will be very difficult as they are very transient,” Waldron said of the mobile camps and workers who live in them. But she said the health department has received comments recently about unsanitary or unsafe conditions in some of the temporary housing.
Inspectors from the Food and Consumer Protection Division, Pollution Control and Vector Control and Environmental Services will receive training from the Indiana State Department of Health, which oversees migrant camp inspections, Waldron said. No additional staff will be hired. The inspection fee, which the railroad must pay, has not yet been set.
In other news
♦Amy Hesting, director of the county's Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, told the board her division is on an urgent search for why Burmese children's blood lead levels have risen after coming to Fort Wayne. Of 43 Burmese children who initially were found to have elevated lead levels after arrival, 12 of the children's levels went up. One child required a process to remove the lead, but any damage already done to the brain is irreversible.
The health department has tested a variety of food and household products in the apartments of Burmese refugees, as well as the paint and other possible external environmental causes, Hesting said. No definitive answers have been found, although she is awaiting some test results. Meanwhile, the health department has called on the state and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help uncover the mystery.
♦County Commissioner Nelson Peters appeared before the board to seek members' input on a proposed ordinance before county commissioners that would require doctors who do outpatient surgeries involving human tissue removal to have hospital privileges. When the patient safety bill was first presented it focused mostly on doctors who do abortions, Peters said. But the commissioners are now looking at all office-based surgery procedures with “mid- to top-level sedation,” which could include a variety of non-gynecological procedures. Commissioners are seeking advice from the local and state medical societies, and Peters said because statewide action on such a measure would require legislative change that could take a year or more, the commissioners are seeking the best way to protect residents in the meantime.
Peters said he thought existing rules and measures already in place under the state health department would encompass oversight if the proposal becomes law in Allen County, but noted, “We don't have all the answers.”
♦Health Commissioner Dr. Deborah McMahan said the county's Flu Task Force would be meeting soon to address the low rates of influenza vaccinations among children and health-care workers, pointing out that 83 children in 33 states died last year of flu-related illnesses, up from 68 children the year before. While some cases and deaths could be blamed on the lack of a match between the vaccine and the strain of flu that circulated last year, health experts say 58, or 92 percent, of the 63 children age 6 months or older who died had not received flu vaccine.
McMahan said the CDC is also concerned about rising numbers of cases of co-existing flu and staph aureus infections among children who died or were hospitalized with influenza in the 2006-07 reporting year. To that end, local health departments must now report to the state cases of severe staph disease that develops in a previously healthy person who dies or is admitted to a hospital intensive care unit.
Trackman sues Norfolk Southern in Madison County
9/15/2008 1:30 PM By Kelly Holleran
Larry D. Potter has filed suit against Norfolk Southern Railway Company, claiming he has suffered severe injuries as a result of his work for the company.
Potter alleges he received the injuries through repetitive trauma while he was employed by the railway as a trackman and machine operator from 1966 until 2006, according to a complaint filed Sept. 11 in Madison County.
The injuries caused him great pain and mental anguish and caused him to lose money and earnings, the suit states.
Potter claims his earning capacity has been greatly diminished and that he has been forced to spend substantial amounts on medical costs.
Norfolk Southern Railway Company was negligent because it failed to provide a safe place to work, safe methods of work, sufficient manpower and safe tools and equipment, according to the complaint.
Potter is seeking a judgment in excess of $50,000, plus costs of the suit.
Greogory M. Tobin of Pratt & Tobin in East Alton will be representing him.
