Author: paul

Home>Articles by: paul

Last week was not a good one for two Midwest bus drivers.

In Urbana, Ill., a transit driver who chose to run smack dab over a snowman lost her job, reports the Chicago Tribune.

The snowman had been built in the middle of a University of Illinois campus street. A YouTube-posted video showed the transit bus “veering toward the snowman and running over it,” reports the newspaper. Another vehicle in the video was seen avoiding the snowman. The bus driver resigned after transit officials viewed the video.

In Portage, Mich., a school bus driver faces drunken driving charges after allegedly having five beers at a bar prior to taking the wheel to transport 36 middle-school honor students on a field trip, according to the Associated Press.

Bar patrons notified police, who pulled over the bus with students aboard, reported the Associated Press. The driver, according to police, tested at twice the legal blood-alcohol limit for operating a motor vehicle. The driver, who was fired, had an earlier drunken driving conviction that went unnoticed in a background check, reported the Associated Press. The driver was fired.

WASHINGTON — Unsafe commercial bus operators are to be targeted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration through a program to be called Compliance Safety Accountability.

The agency said the program will include an analysis of safety-based violations — including safety inspections and crash data — to determine the least safe carriers. “Corrective intervention” will follow, said the FMCSA.

The safety-based analysis will utilize seven safety improvement categories to examine a carrier’s on-road performance and potential crash risk: Unsafe driving, fatigued driving (based on hours-of-service violations), driver fitness, drug/alcohol violations, vehicle maintenance, cargo-related accidents and vehicle crash history.

“By looking at a carrier’s safety violations in each category, the FMCSA and state law enforcement will be better equipped to identify carriers with patterns of high-risk behaviors and apply interventions that provide carriers the information necessary to change unsafe practices early on,” said the agency.

Unlike prior years, where railroads cut loose employees during lean times, leaving them without benefits, Union Pacific during this recession has attempted to keep many on a reduced schedule, allowing them to retain health care benefits, reports the Topeka Capital-Journal.

A UP spokesperson told the Capital-Journal it had furloughed 5,300 people across the system at the height of the recession, but the number of furloughed workers is now only about 1,000.

The UP spokesperson told the newspaper it has tried to keep many of the 5,300 furloughed workers on a reduced schedule, allowing them to retain health care benefits and avoid having to retrain.

“When you bring someone back to work in the rail industry [after they were cut loose], they have to go back through [safety] rules training. They have to have refresher courses. This time we had employees stay with us and work at a reduced number of days.

“An employee may be working eight days a month and is only getting paid for eight days a month, but more importantly he is retaining his benefits,” said the UP spokesperson. “He is able to keep his rules current and doesn’t have to go back through training. As soon as things start getting better, an employee can step up and work right away.”

The UTU has been urging other railroads to follow a similar course of action, which UTU International President Mike Futhey calls “a win-win for the railroad and their highly trained and dedicated work force.”

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. — Union Pacific is four years into its five-year pilot Confidential Close Calls Reporting System (C3RS) and participants are giving it high marks for improving safety culture.

C3RS encourages engineers, conductors, trainmen and yardmasters to report close calls that may have resulted in accidents or injuries without fear of discipline or FRA enforcement action, even if rules violations are involved.

All C3RS reports by employees are collected anonymously and kept confidential.

The UP pilot program — one of four involving the UTU and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen — is supported by the Federal Railroad Administration.

Once confidential employee reports are submitted, they are examined confidentially by the U.S. DOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, which removes all identifying information.

That information is then transmitted to the carrier, where a C3RS peer review team recommends corrective action, such as improved training, changes in physical plant, changes in existing federal safety laws or regulations, changes in carrier operating rules, improved training and/or education.

Examples of close calls include varying levels of risk, such as leaving pieces of equipment unsecured, improper blocking, operating trains beyond track authority, or violating operating rules.

Union Pacific says that such analysis “has spurred systemwide change,” including “reformatting track warrants so they are easier to read.”

A UP officer said that C3RS is helping UP move from a blame culture to one that bridges communication gaps between employees and management.

Other Confidential Close Calls Reporting System pilot projects are being conducted on Amtrak (systemwide), Canadian Pacific at Portage, Wisc., and New Jersey Transit (systemwide).

“Non-punitive reporting produces safety data that could not otherwise be obtained while helping to identify and mitigate risks before another serious incident occurs,” said UTU International Vice President John Previsich, who has been helping to design and implement C3RS pilot programs.

WASHINGTON — Truckers won’t be happy when the new Congress, with John Mica (R-Fla.) chairing the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, looks at raising the federal motor fuels tax.

Mica told the Florida Times-Union that he supports raising the federal tax on gasoline and diesel fuel by 15 cents per gallon — from the current 18.4 cents per gallon to 33.4 cents. States also impose a tax on motor fuels.

Any increase in the motor fuels tax makes rail intermodal (trailers and containers atop flat cars) more competitive as railroads are significantly more fuel efficient than truck transportation. And as railroads buy fuel in bulk quantities and store their diesel fuel — plus buy forward contracts locking in future prices — they realize additional savings over most truckers.

A BNSF official told the Journal of Commerce that while BNSF and Union Pacific are moving 4 million intermodal loads annually, there remain up to 7 million truck movements for which the two railroads are competing. During this recession, intermodal has been the only line of rail traffic that has grown, BNSF told the Journal of Commerce.

The federal motor fuels tax is the primary source of funding for constructing and reconstructing federal-aid highways, including the Interstate highway system — but it has fallen short in recent years.

In 2011, Congress — beginning with the T&I Committee — will reauthorize the HIghway Trust Fund, which includes setting the motor fuels tax rate.

Also to be considered will be a proposal to establish a percentage tax — rather than a specific cents-per-gallon tax — that would generate more revenue as the pump price of motor fuel increases.

According to Dow-Jones newswire, some state departments of transportation are pushing for an 8.4 percent tax on gasoline and a 10.6 percent tax on diesel. Mica told Dow-Jones he is opposed to percentage taxes.

Norfolk Southern CEO Wick Moorman has been named Railroader of the Year by Railway Age magazine.

“In addition to performing solidly, controlling costs, improving productivity and continuing to invest in growth capital in a recessionary economy, Norfolk Southern has excelled in technological innovation and development of public-private partnerships,” says the magazine in its award.

“Among the many examples of these accomplishments are the railroad’s building and testing of an all-electric, battery-powered yard locomotive and opening the Heartland Corridor, a major intermodal artery developed in partnership with several states,” says Railway Age. “Norfolk Southern is strongly positioned for growth and is an example of why railroads are increasingly the mode of choice for the nation’s transportation needs.”

In 1972, Modern Railroads magazine (later acquired by Railway Age) named former UTU President Charles Luna as its Railroader of the Year. In 2000, Railway Age named The Railroad Worker as Railroader of the Century.

STOUGHTON, Mass. — An alert and ever vigilant Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad crew — that recognized the difference between a bag of clothes between the tracks and a human being — saved a life in this Boston suburb last week.

The MBCR crew, with engineer Chris Holm at the throttle and conductor John Gibbs (UTU Local 898) in charge, brought the six-car train to a halt after the locomotive’s headlight pierced the dark and illuminated what turned out to be an intoxicated man who had stumbled.

“He wasn’t coherent,” Gibbs told the Boston Herald. “He told me he wanted to rest. I said, ‘This isn’t the place to do it.’

“We’re trained to do this,” said Gibbs, age 54 and with 17 years of service as a conductor. “It’s good to know when it happens you can snap right to it.”

An MBCR spokesperson told the Herald, “It’s hardworking, quick-thinking men like Chris Holm and John Gibbs that show what an excellent job the men and women on the commuter rail do every day.”

BUFFALO — UTU-member and Buffalo school bus driver Yolanda Luciano (Local 1908) is being hailed as a hero — likely saving the lives of one or more of the eight elementary-school students aboard her First Student bus by engaging in a split-second emergency defensive driving maneuver on a snowy street the afternoon of Dec. 8.
An automobile, its driver allegedly fleeing police — and perhaps traveling 100 mph before the crash, according to Buffalo television news reports — appeared in Luciano’s windshield, coming directly at her bus.
Luciano abruptly steered the bus from a direct head-on impact with the blue Chevrolet Impala, but it was still a head-on crash.
“Everything went up in smoke and flames, just horrible,” an eyewitness told WGRZ television news. Luciano helped evacuate the children from the bus.
“She really handled the situation well,” said General Chairperson Dale McClain. “She saved lives.”
Only one student — a six-year-old — was injured seriously enough to be hospitalized with non life-threatening injuries. The driver of the auto also was hospitalized with unspecified injuries.
UTU Local 1908 represents some 600 First Student drivers and mechanics in Buffalo.

First it was Union Pacific wanting to have its trains inspected in Mexico.

Now BNSF is making the same plea to the FRA — and as the UTU and other rail unions did in the case of UP — the FRA is being advised to, “just say no.”

Putting safety first cannot co-exist with farming out crucial safety inspections to the lowest bidder, the UTU and the other labor organizations told the FRA in the case of both UP (in October) and BNSF (in December).

To begin with, the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 established standards to be met when railroads seek safety waivers, such as wanting trains inspected south of the border.

The UTU, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes and the American Train Dispatchers Association contend that neither UP nor BNSF have demonstrated that the inspections in Mexico will meet minimum FRA standards.

In fact, neither UP nor BNSF has shown that the FRA will have the uninhibited authority to examine the Mexican facilities where the safety inspections would be made.

Furthermore, said the UTU and other labor organizations, moving the inspections south of the border would be in direct conflict with congressional policy — and eminent common sense — to preserve employment in the U.S. during this lengthy and stalled recession.

The labor organizations told the FRA that “it is common” for cars from Mexico to enter the U.S. “with handbrakes applied, retaining valves set, angle cocks closed and bad order cars located within the train.

“Not to be overlooked is the fact that these trains also frequently are transporting hazardous materials cars,” the UTU and other labor organizations told the FRA.

“Historically, the FRA has denied requests for waivers of air brake and mechanical safety inspections on trains entering the U.S. if the request involves movement of the trains past a point where the inspections can be performed,” said the labor organizations.

WASHINGTON — Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA) faces a fine from the FRA for alleged failure to report an injury and for underreporting of days lost by an injured employee and failure to maintain complete and timely records of injuries to other employees, says the FRA.

“These latest findings from the FRA confirm a disturbing trend that began to emerge more than a year ago,” said UTU Illinois Legislative Director Robert W. Guy. “They suggest a deteriorating safety atmosphere at TRRA. The railroad has now been cited for safety violations four times within a year, including this latest citation.”

Guy advised TRRA employees to stay alert for safety hazards and to report to the local immediately any effort by TRRA management to subvert the operating rules or FRA-mandated safety practices. “The key is to report what you see to your local and let the Illinois Legislative Board follow up with the appropriate enforcement agencies,” Guy said. “Do not be insubordinate or refuse to carry out orders.

“Once you have carried out your orders, however, do your best to remember the time, date and location of any unsafe practices that you witnessed or participated in, and be sure to provide the local with the name of the supervisor who directed you to work in an unsafe manner or permitted a violation of the federal reporting laws. The union will take it from there, and as the FRA’s latest letter proves, when our members act, the union gets results.”