CHICAGO — One person was killed when a train struck a truck in a Norfolk Southern intermodal facility in Chicago’s Fuller Park neighborhood today (Monday, Nov. 20), the Chicago Tribune reports.
The Chicago Fire Department reported the truck was stopped on tracks within the NS facility at 350 West Garfield Boulevard when it was struck by a train. The location is at the south end of the railroad’s 47th Street Intermodal Terminal. The Fire Department reported there had been a fatality shortly before 8 a.m. A Norfolk Southern spokesman told the Tribune the railroad would conduct a full investigation and offered condolences to the drivers family and colleagues.
WBBM-TV reports the truck was caught between two trains — struck by one train and pushed into a train on an adjacent track
What do most of the comments have to do with the story?
It sounds like a forseeable circumstance which should have been protected against.
If drivers could pull in front of airplanes there would surely be more
Please folks, can this web site go a single day without reporting yet another serious incident on the rails or transit systems?
How many deaths have we had over the last several years in scheduled air transport? Like one, something like that.
I posted too soon, I think the number is two, one passenger and one ramp crewman, over about the last four years. I’m a frequent flier, the only part that scares me is driving to the airport.
On average 4 to 6 airport ramp workers are killed annually by engine ingestion. The rate jumps higher when deaths occur due to ramp vehicles collision, back into, back over or run over ramp workers. From 84 to 123 annually. The most common is the fuel truck backing up and the worker can’t hear the beeping over their earplugs or jet noise. Most airports require a spotter to be in place. With over 500 commercial airports in the US alone, just the top 5 probably constitute the majority of those deaths. ATL, DFW, ORD, DEN & LAX.
Hope that helps on your next drive to General Mitchell.
FAA and OSHA data don’t sync up perfectly. There are some complaints that the FAA suppresses or is incomplete because most ramp workers are contractors and don’t work for an airline or airport but a third party. So it doesn’t report up in the same way.
JOHN — Driving to MKE General Mitchell isn’t the problem. Try driving to SEA SeaTac Washington State, or BOS Boston Logan. Logan is of course well-served by transit, which is what I almost always have used. We once rented a car there, what a horror, but only because my wife didn’t want to fly into PVD TF Green Rhode Island, which would have meant layover at BWI Baltimore.
Thanks for the info on ramp workers dying. I only heard of one of those cases, so I stand corrected.