Contacts:
Laura.O'Connell@fra.dot.gov
for overall analysis, research design, methodology, and findings.
Lonnie.Ramos@fra.dot.gov
for technical questions about specific fatality reports.
This study and report were designed to promote and enhance awareness of many unsafe behaviors and conditions that typically contribute to railroad employee fatalities. By furthering our understanding of the causes of railroad employee fatalities, this report can assist railroad industry stakeholders in their efforts to prevent similar tragedies. This document will serve as a model for future reports. A comprehensive analysis of 1998 railroad employee fatalities is in progress, followed by analyses of subsequent years.
In addition to the individual narrative reports (provided in the past), this document contains the following new materials:
- Yard and accident
scene diagrams which accompany 28 narrative reports for calendar year 1997;
- Narrative matrix
entitled "Analysis of 1997 Employee Fatalities," (Appendix
A)which highlights important elements of each fatality, particularly the possible contributing factors (PCFs). This format allows the reader to walk through and analyze each fatality scenario, identifying ways the fatalities could have been prevented;
- Overall findings
which help to identify who the majority of fatally injured employees were (i.e. craft, job position, age group, years of service); what they were doing at the time (i.e. switching, repairing equipment, repairing track, etc.); when they were fatally injured (i.e. time of year, time of day); where the incidents occurred (i.e. region, type of railroad); and most importantly, why they occurred in terms of possible contributing factors; and
- Bar and pie charts
(Appendices B through I) which illustrate the above findings.
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