Views & News

The Federal Railroad Administration has announced that its Switching Operation Fatality Analysis (SOFA) Working Group will present its initial findings to the rail industry in a special meeting to be held the afternoon of Railroad Day On Capitol Hill, February 25.  In a letter sent to rail industry leadership, FRA Chief Administrator Joe Szabo – himself a member of the group immediately prior to his appointment as FRA head – has invited them to Washington to "discuss some of SOFA’s latest findings; the actions we, as an industry, can take to address those findings; and what measures will be taken to monitor progress in creating a safer workplace for operating crews that work in yards, industries, and along the mainlines of our Nation."

The SOFA group was first convened by FRA in 1998 to examine the 76 fatalities that involved railroad employees engaged in switching operations between January 1, 1992 and July 1, 1998.  That group’s findings included five operating recommendations, later shortened to "5 Livesavers" that are now in widespread use throughout the industry: Secure equipment before action is taken; protect employees against moving equipment; discuss safety at the beginning of a job or when a project changes; communicate before action is taken; and mentor less experienced employees to perform service safety.  The group was reconvened by FRA in 2004 and then again in early 2009, on both occasions a response to switching-related fatalities having unfortunately continued to occur.

The current SOFA group is made up of eleven career railroaders, who altogether total over 300 man-years’ industry experience, and is assisted by three high-level consultants.  Additional to its FRA facilitators, the group includes representatives from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen, the United Transportation Union, the Association of American Railroads, and the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association.  Participating for ASLRRA have been Tom Streicher and Dave Mears.  Dave says that the group is "far and away" the most effective labor-management team he has ever been involved with.  "The level of synergy coming out of the group is truly remarkable," he says.  "There is no defensive posturing whatsoever.  If, for example, the group’s examination of a switching fatality reveals that it was due in some degree to human error, no one disputes it."  Dave says that participating in the group has had special meaning for him due to his maternal grandfather having lost part of his leg while switching cars for the old Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad in the 1930s.  "My involvement here gives me a chance not only to honor his memory,  but also to try to make sure that what happened to him stops happening to others," he said.

Additional to having been given special access to FRA case documentation, the group has employed the latest technological innovations in its work.  A recent case examination saw the use of the satellite map tool Google Earth, which was displayed on the screen to give the group an aerial view of the site where a switching fatality occurred.  This assisted the group in familiarizing themselves with the accident location and the physical sequence of events that led up to it, as well as allowing them to check for anything unique to the site that may have contributed to the accident.

The group has now completed its detailed examination of 55 switching fatalities occurring between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2009.  It has also entered them into an advanced database management system, and is presently using that system to deduce the commonalities and other relational elements present among them.  From this work will come recommendations that will – as stated with both hopefulness and expectation in Mr. Szabo’s letter – "if implemented, reduce these types of fatalities to zero."

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