WASHINGTON – CSX Transportation’s failure to fully mitigate the risk of freight cars rolling off a yard track and onto the Acca Yard lead in Richmond, Va., was the probable cause of the death of a remote-control operator in October 2020, the National Transportation Safety Board said in an Aug. 30 report on the incident.
A contributing factor, the safety board said, was the remote-control operator riding on the lead freight car while operating the train, which collided with a cut of three cars he had previously kicked on track 12. Those cars rolled back onto the lead, fouling his train’s path, the safety board said.
The RCO, Ryan Sandy, 37, had worked as a conductor for CSX since 2008 and became qualified as an engineer in 2015. He had experience working the job alone on an assignment that was usually handled by a two-person crew, the NTSB said.
The report says the fatality occurred at 2:17 a.m. on Oct. 12. The train, yard job Y-39311, was traveling about 4 mph at the time of the collision. It was raining at the time, which likely reduced Sandy’s ability to see the kicked railcars, the NTSB said.
“During interviews, the CSX trainmaster, yardmaster, and several RCOs stated that they were aware that tracks 11–14 had occasional rollbacks due to a hump in the area caused by a grade issue, and that rollbacks occurred most frequently on track 12,” the NTSB said.
“Before the accident, CSX regraded the area to resolve the issue; however, a slight grade remained on tracks 11-14,” the safety board said.
After the accident CSX revised its yard switching procedures to mandate that workers only couple and shove cars into tracks 11-14 at Acca Yard.
Sandy is survived by his wife and five children, according to the SMART-TD union.
My thoughts are he left a wife and five children. Sad
😥🙁😪
Please note he was working alone, at night, in the rain. If a second person had been working……..
Seems they missed an obvious change. Require the operator to ride the side of car AWAY from the track being switched. He may have avoided a fatal injury. This is sad, sad event.
That’s the “air side” – i.e., the side where the angle cock is for opening/closing during switching moves. That’s why he was on that side.