EAST DEERFIELD, Mass. - A 35-year-old UTU member, caught under a railroad car early Tuesday morning (July 13) as he and others attempted to uncouple it from an engine while they were working in a River Road railroad yard, died from his injuries at Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield, the Springfield, Mass., Republican reports.
Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth D. Scheibel said the victim, Kurt Ward of North Conway, N.H., suffered a severe leg injury about 2:30 a.m.
(Ward is a member of Local 587, Greenfield, Mass.)
Ward, Scheibel said, was a worker at the Pan Am Southern railroad yard. He was caught under the car while it was uncoupling, Scheibel said.
Scheibel said an autopsy will be conducted on Ward and that her office is investigating his death.
(This item appeared in the Republican July 13, 2010. Additional information added by UTU editors.)
EAST DEERFIELD, Mass. A memorial service for UTU member Kurt Ward, 35, who was killed in an on-duty accident July 13 on Pan Am Southern Railway here, will be held Saturday, July 17, at 2 p.m. St. Peters Church in Weston, Mass.
Ward, of North Conway, N.H., and a member of UTU Local 587, Greenfield, Mass., "caught under a railroad car as he and others attempted to uncouple it from an engine while they were working in a River Road railroad yard," reported a local newspaper. The newspaper said Ward died from his injuries at Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield.
Ward was a graduate of Weston High School and Salem State College. While in high school he achieved the highest honor of Eagle Scout and was a state champion breast stroke swimmer.
Throughout his life he was active in various community theaters and an avid model train enthusiast. In recent years he began practicing change bell ringing with a group of bell ringers.
He is survived by his mother, Lee Ward; father, Roy Ward; brother, Keith; and sister-in-law, Laurie.
The family asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Mt. Washington Valley Theatre, Box 265, North Conway, NH 03860, in memory of Kurt Ward.
Pan Am Southern, which operates between Albany, N.Y., and Boston over what is called the Patriot Corridor, is jointly owned by Pan Am Railway and Norfolk Southern.
Ward is the sixth UTU member to die in an on-duty rail accident in 2010. Eight UTU members died in on-duty rail accidents in 2009.
Ward is the second UTU member to die in an on-duty accident on a Norfolk Southern property this year. Earlier this month, a conductor belonging to the BLET died in an on-duty accident in a Norfolk Southern rail yard in Meridian, Miss.
