KARRATHA, Western Australia — An autonomously operated iron ore train of Australia mining company Rio Tinto collided with a set of stationary cars early this morning, derailing three locomotives and 22 cars, the Australian Broadcasting Co. reports.
A Rio Tinto representative told ABC the incident occurred just after midnight and that there were no people in the vicinity of the collision some 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Karratha in the sparsely populated Pilbara region. The company has begun an investigation.
The Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator said it had been informed of a collision between a loaded ore train and a recovery train, with an ONRSR spokesman saying in a statement that the recovery train had collided with the train it had been set to collect after the first train was disabled by a mechanical failure. “ONRSR is investigating the incident and will be making a series of enquiries, the statement said. “At this stage, these are focused on the operation of and adherence to signaling systems in the area.”
The Mining and Energy Union disputed Rio Tinto’s claim that there was no one in the area of the accident, saying in a press release that five workers repairing the disabled train had to evacuate after receiving a mayday signal that a collision was about to occur.
“If these workers were situated at the rear of the train at the time of the incident, we could have seen fatal outcomes,” said Greg Busson, Mining and Energy Western Australia secretary. Busson said the union was seeking an explanation why Rio Tinto’s “fail-safe” safety systems had not worked.
It is the second derailment of a Rio Tinto train this year — an incident also occurred in February — and third in a year. Thirty cars of a train derailed last June [see “Investigation begins after autonomous ore train derails …,” Trains News Wire, June 19, 2023]. Before that, there had been just one incident in 2018.
Rio Tinto has pioneered the use of autonomous operation of heavy-haul freight trains on its mining railroads in the Pilbara, an effort that began in 2012 [see “Rio Tinto train completes first crewless trip,” News Wire, Oct. 5, 2017].
— Updated at 8:25 a.m. CT with information from Mining and Energy Union.
Well well what do we have here? Rio tintos Autonomous railroad isn’t supposed to be able to run into each other. Well I guess that wasnt true after all . Wonder how the spin doctors will explain that away?
Or perhaps they won’t be spin doctors. Perhaps they’ll give an honest report, learn from the mistakes, and be safer in the future. Seems like a good safety record for years prior to the recent incidents.
Yeah, but it would’ve only taken a few deaths, by maintenance workers as noted or by someone lime-side and all the good done would have been wiped out in no time…
In the pre-autonomous days, trains with actual engineers would occasionally strike disabled trains they were sent to rescue.
However, if you read the first paragraph, “An autonomously operated iron ore train of Australia mining company Rio Tinto collided with a set of stationary cars ,” it implies a regular train had struck a cut of cars that had been left on the Main Track without the computer knowing they were there.
What DID happen?
Note: in 1951 PRR No 31 ignored an Approach block signal, an Approach cab signal with warning whistle and a fusee thrown at the locomotive and struck a disabled troop train near Coshocton OH. Engine crew included Engineer and Fireman. Things happen.
I am reasonably sure the have been using these trains for years with out an issue.
Things happen, maybe someone is losing focus of how to program the information in the computers.
Not working out so well for Tesla either…Like Chris says, nothing is fool proof!
Nothing is “fool proof.”
Oh, oh. This ain’t good for autonomous operations.