Number of U.S. railroad workers testing positive for drug use skyrockets
Source: Washington Post
Number of U.S. railroad workers testing positive for drug use skyrockets
By Ashley Halsey III
https://twitter.com/ashleyhalsey3rd
September 15 at 9:30 AM
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Testing in 2016 has shown that nearly 8 percent of workers involved in rail accidents were positive for drug use, including marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, benzodiazepine, OxyContin and morphine, according to internal federal documents obtained by The Washington Post.
The number of post-accident drug-positives was the highest since the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) began keeping records in 1987, three times greater than it was 10 years ago. ... Overall, the number of railway workers — including engineers, train crew and dispatchers — who tested positive for drug use in random tests soared 43 percent last year, the documents show.
Railroads transported 565 million passengers and 14.2 million carloads of freight last year. Their workers rank among the most heavily drug-tested employees in the country, faced with drug screening before they are hired, random on-the-job testing and another round of testing every time they make a significant mistake. ... But after several years in which heroin and illegal opioid use has increased in the general population, there is hard evidence that the use of those and other drugs may be on the rise in the railroad industry.
Faced with the initial positive test results, federal regulators began sounding an alarm this spring. This month, the heads of all of the nation’s freight and passenger rail lines were summoned to Washington for a closed-door session to deal with a crisis federal officials fear has put both workers and train travelers at risk.
Officials from the FRA, National Transportation Safety Board, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy spelled out their concerns and asked the railroads to help them address the growing problem. ... This week they had a similar private session with railroad unions.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/number-of-us-railroad-workers-testing-positive-for-drug-use-skyrockets/2016/09/14/6966f6ce-7abc-11e6-ac8e-cf8e0dd91dc7_story.html
Back in the old days, alcohol use among train crews was just plain legendary.
The recent (with the last thirty years) impetus for testing came about as a result of a horrific collision in Chase, Maryland, in January 1987:
The Conrail locomotive crew failed to stop at the signals before Gunpowder Interlocking, and it was determined that the accident would have been avoided had they done so. Additionally, they tested positive for marijuana. The engineer served four years in a Maryland prison for his role in the crash. In the aftermath, drug and alcohol procedures for train crews were overhauled by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), which is charged with rail safety. In 1991, prompted in large part by the Chase Maryland crash, the United States Congress took even broader action and authorized mandatory random drug-testing for all employees in "safety-sensitive" jobs in all industries regulated by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) including trucking, bus carriers and rail systems. Additionally, all trains operating on the high-speed Northeast Corridor are now equipped with automatic cab signalling with an automatic train stop feature. Several safety issues were identified with Amfleet cars as well.
At the time, the wreck was the deadliest in Amtrak's history. It was later surpassed in 1993, during the wreck at Big Bayou Canot in Alabama that killed 47.
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Movements of the trains pre-collision
Amtrak Train 94
Amtrak Train 94 (the Colonial) left Washington Union Station at 12:30 pm (Eastern time) for Boston South Station. The train had 12 cars and was filled with travelers returning from the holiday season to their homes and schools for the second semester of the year. Two AEM-7 locomotives, numbered 900 and 903, led the train; #903 was the lead locomotive. The engineer was 35-year-old Jerome Evans.
After leaving the Baltimore, Maryland Amtrak station, the train's next stop was Wilmington, Delaware. Just north of Baltimore, while still in Baltimore County, the four-track Northeast Corridor narrows to two tracks at Gunpowder Interlocking just before crossing over the Gunpowder River. The train accelerated north toward that location.
Conrail light engine move
Ricky Lynn Gates, a Penn Central and Conrail engineer since 1973, was operating a trio of Conrail B-36 locomotives light (without freight cars) from Conrail's Bayview Yard just east of Baltimore bound for Enola Yard near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Gates was later determined to have violated several signal and operating rules, including a failure to properly test his cab signals as required before departure from Bayview. It was later discovered that someone had disabled the cab signal alerter whistle on lead unit #5044 with duct tape, muting it almost completely. Also, one of the light bulbs in the PRR-style cab signal display had been removed. Investigators believed these conditions probably existed prior to departure from Bayview and that they would have been revealed by a properly performed departure test.
Gates and his brakeman, Edward "Butch" Cromwell, were also smoking a marijuana cigarette.[citation needed] Cromwell was responsible for calling out the signals if Gates missed them, but failed to do so.
I'm adding this to my Rail Safety Megathread.
= new reply since forum marked as read
