TACOMA, Wash. – A former BNSF Railway locomotive engineer is suing the Class I railroad because he was allegedly fired after preventing a wreck at a yard in Portland, Ore., the Seattle Times reports. Earlier this month, a federal judge denied a motion by the railroad to throw out the case.
According to court documents, James T. Norvell, a 13-year veteran of the railroad, was operating a transfer job between two yards in Portland in 2015 when the locomotive’s brakes failed. Norvell put the locomotive in reverse, bringing it to a stop but causing significant damage. Norvell was terminated soon after. The engineer says he should not be fired because the railroad failed to maintain its locomotives and because his actions prevented a derailment or worse.
BNSF denies all of the allegations within the suit.
The next guy that exits the restroom.
So who will cop the blame in the future when trains have no crew on board as discussed in the January issue of TRAINS?
I have a friend who was working in a yard and lost a leg due a locomotive having defective brakes. The RR new it and settled with him for generational family money. Hopefully, if what we read is true in this short story, he received a nice settlement too.
So, what are we missing here? If the engineer was actually fired, how can the BNSF deny that? And, if the BNSF does not want the lawsuit to go to court, why? Is the railroad afraid of something that will probably come out in court? Time will tell.
No good deed goes unpunished
A federal judge in Tacoma, Washington has denied a motion by BNSF Railway Company to dismiss the lawsuit brought by former locomotive engineer James T. Norvell, who alleges he was wrongfully terminated by the company.
Mr. Norvell alleges in his federal complaint that he was forced to take emergency action to prevent a catastrophe when the train he was operating failed to respond to his efforts to stop it in a BNSF rail yard in Portland, Oregon in 2015. The complaint states that the rail yard was surrounded by storage tanks of hazardous materials and that, were he not able to stop, Mr. Norvell’s train likely would have collided with a another train carrying hazardous materials – all of which could have caused great harm to co-workers and the general public. He further alleges that when he reported the issue to management, along with his discovery that the locomotive, and several others, were known to have safety defects that the company had repeatedly failed to address, he was fired.
In his order issued January 2, 2018, District Judge Benjamin H. Settle found that Mr. Norvell’s lawsuit sufficiently alleged that he was fired in violation of Washington’s wrongful termination law because, among other things, “it is easily recognized that a clear public policy exists in protecting human life from imminent danger.”
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/12/prweb15038894.htm
You can read the filings and back and forth between BNSF and the engineer here:
https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/22369297/Norvell_v_BNSF_Railway_Company
The BNSF employee saved the railroad a vast sum of money. It wasn’t his fault foe shoddy maintainence on the locomotive. He should not be terminated.
And thats the attitude that has contributed to the downfall of unions, Less and less and the unions wonder why the numbers are falling.
Not enough information here to understand the whole scenario (note: normal definition of transfer is movement of locomotive & cars without an end-of-train device):
– how many cars in the transfer, and loads/weight being moved?
– was the movement on relatively level terrain, or any kind of grade?
– if the independent (locomotive) brakes failed, was the transfer running without air on the cars?
More details are required to properly understand why he felt his actions were necessary.
@Bradley, if I’m paying union dues for 13 years, I expect them to protect and represent me regardless!!!! Its not an insurance policy where the insurance still doesn’t pay, Screw that sh**!!! Im paying for union coverage, God Damit, represent me, I don’t give a SH** what the circumstances are.
Sounds as if BNSF will lose and they will look like idiots. What was he supposed to do.
Let’s hear the whole story before we make judgements.
Damn!!! What jerks. 13 year veteran. I hope his union is paying the legal bills.
If the union isn’t paying his bills, that may be telling us something?
I would like to read the transcript of this investigation and read what was brought out in the course of said investigation.
I agree that there is not enough information to make a comment on this incident.
To bad his union is more interested in politics and electing Democrats than helping their members in cases like this.
As has been said, not enough info to make a judgement. Wondering though if the unit was equipped with dynamic brakes, and if so, were they used and found to be ineffective before the engineer took the step of ripping the guts out of the engine?
I’m more interested in the “failure” of the locomotive brakes. If they made an air test before departure (still required for transfer runs), there should not have been a problem. But if “between yards” means that he was entirely within yard limits (I worked within a yard complex that contained many smaller yards), he may have been moving cars without air, and–air or no air–apparently moving too fast per the definition of speed within a yard. (Used to be “restricted speed”, but that definition only applies to main tracks now.)
As Wayne says, more details are needed.