DENVER - A Union Pacific conductor was killed Wednesday night (Dec. 3) in Adams County, Colo., when a tractor-trailer plowed into him and the train he was on at an unlit, unguarded intersection, according to reports in the Rocky Mountain News, the Denver Post and the KMGH Web site.
The conductor was found pinned under the train, the North Washington Fire Protection District said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The 33-year-old conductor has not been named, though his family members showed up at the crossing shortly after the crash at about 7 p.m., said Trooper Gilbert Mares of the Colorado State Patrol.
The crash occurred about 7 p.m. A 2006 Freightliner tractor-trailer was traveling west on East 66th Avenue in an industrial area crisscrossed by railroad tracks, about a half mile south of Interstate 76.
A Union Pacific locomotive with three rail cars was going slowly in reverse, north on a track near Franklin Street, troopers said.
The train was moving about 5 mph, but the speed of the semi is under investigation.
The tractor-trailer then hit the rail car where the conductor had been standing at the rear, trooper Gilbert Mares said.
The conductor was responsible for removing debris from the track, but it was not clear whether he was doing that when he was hit.
The impact sent the tractor-trailer onto its side, injuring the driver, Wendell T. Cox, 47, of Bedford Heights, Ohio.
The tractor-trailer landed on its side after the collision. Its fuel tanks ruptured by the impact but crews contained the diesel spill. A small amount of diesel fuel leaked from the truck, but was not a hazardous material risk and no evacuation was ordered.
Cox was taken to North Suburban Medical Center, troopers said.
(This item was compiled from information in the Rocky Mountain News, the Denver Post and on the KMGH Web site Dec. 4, 2008.)
DENVER - A Union Pacific conductor was killed Wednesday night (Dec. 3) in Adams County, Colo., when a tractor-trailer plowed into him and the train he was on at an unlit, unguarded intersection,
The crash occurred about 7 p.m. A Union Pacific locomotive with three rail cars was going slowly in reverse, north on a track near Franklin Street, troopers said.
The train was moving about 5 mph, but the speed of the semi is under investigation.
The tractor-trailer then hit the rail car where the conductor had been standing at the rear, trooper Gilbert Mares said.
The conductor was responsible for removing debris from the track, but it was not clear whether he was doing that when he was hit.
The paper always screws up the story. Guess we'll hear about it at a safety briefing soon. If it'd been me, I'd a had a lantern and fusees...I'm sure this guy did? Removing debris?? WTF?? If he was working picking stuff up, why was train still moving?? RIP Brother..condolances to the family.
I am correct that we are not suppose to ride cars over intersections?
Is this in the CSX rulebook someplace that I've missed?
We lost a conductor, good guy, about four years ago, when a semi hit the car he was riding on in a plant. I'm thinking they backed into him. There's a whole list of things that have to be done before a crew goes into that plant now. It was a awful thing.
CSX rule 100 part of which reads.... Protection is required. A trainman must protect the crossing from a point on the ground at the crossing where he will be in a position to stop pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
You can ride a car across a crossing as long as another trainman is on the ground protecting the crossing, but the safety book says you cant ride the bottom rung of the ladder across a road crossing.
I am correct that we are not suppose to ride cars over intersections?
Iti s a rule on the UP. If its a protected crossing you can't ride the bottom rung, but unprotected crossings have to have a crewmember on the ground with fusee's and all that shit.
Its been a bad year on the UP with that signalman run over by that old man, the two blown up in Oaklahoma, and now this poor kid.
