Minn. SLD Qualy, “CP fatalities preventable”

Fox 9 reports that a fatality that occurred last week during a crew change on Canadian Pacific may have been preventable.
In an interview with the news channel, Minnesota State Legislative Director Phil Qualy said that CP could have taken action to move the crew changes to a safer area, but took no action.
Qualy told SMART TD that he had submitted numerous letters to CP about the safety of having a crew change in the specific location where the engineer-trainee Jeffrey Harsh was killed but no action had been taken.
In a similar trajedy, CP railway worker Jamie Jijian died in 2013 as a result of a “combination of hazardous conditions acting together.” His death is also believed to have been preventable.
Rail workers are still performing crew changes in the area where Harsh lost his life last week.
“As a representative of the FRA’s Switching Operations Fatality Analysis (SOFA) working group, I would like to point to section 3.7 of SOFA’s 2011 report “Findings and Advisories of the SOFA Working Group Volume I: SOFA Report with Appendix A,” that warns of the dangers of crossing active rails, to all carriers, interested parties and members.”
Harsh’s case is still under investigation by the FRA.
Click here to read SOFA’s 2011 report.
Click here to read more from Fox 9.
Click here to read more about Jijian’s accident from CBC News.