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- On June 28, 2004, a collision occurred at Macdona, Texas, between a Union Pacific freight train and a Burlington Northern-Santa Fe freight train. This collision caused the rupture of a tank car carrying liquid chlorine, and the ensuing chlorine gas leak killed BLET Member Heath Pape and two local residents.
- Last July, the National Transportation Safety Board issued a report determining that the cause of the accident was fatigue on the part of the Union Pacific crew. Specifically, the Locomotive Engineer was plagued by sleep debt, disrupted circadian processes, and long duty hours and limited sleep in the days leading up to the accident. Moreover, the NTSB found that the Conductor suffered from a lack of sufficient rest before reporting to work and had undergone a disruption to his work/rest pattern.
- Most freight crews work on call, and usually receive only two hours' notice to report for duty. Many of these men and women do not have assigned days off, and work schedules typically rotate from shift to shift, based on the vagaries of traffic flow. All too often, the information available concerning train "lineups" is inaccurate and crews frequently are called to work at unexpected times.
- Compounding matters is the fact that staffing levels in many areas of the country are insufficient, which is the result of two factors. One is that much of the nation's rail infrastructure is operating at or near capacity. The other is that the "Baby Boomer" generation of railroad workers has begun retiring, yet hiring and training of new workers is not keeping pace.
- Locomotive Engineers and Conductors are restricted to twelve hours on duty per day by federal law. However, the mega-mergers of the 1990s produced huge seniority districts and very lengthy freight runs. As a result, crews frequently run out of time to work -- or "outlaw" -- before reaching their destination terminal.
- Once a crew attains twelve hours on duty, it must stop the train and await transportation to its final release point. During this period, however, the crew is required by railroad operating rules to remain alert and monitor the train for any problems. Because of a 1996 U.S. Supreme Court decision, the time from when the train stops until the crew is finally released from duty is considered neither on-duty time nor off-duty time; this is known as "limbo time" in the industry.
- According to data prepared by one of the four largest Class I railroads, in 2002 about 90 crews per day had duty tours in excess of 14 hours, and over 33 of those were in excess of 15 hours. For the past 18 months, those averages increased to 224 and 103, respectively. And almost 20 crews every week for the first six months of this year had a work tour more than 20 hours long; that's 12 hours of work followed by more than 8 hours of limbo time.
- The NTSB has identified limbo time abuse by the railroad industry as a key contributor to fatigue among crews, and we have testified before the House Subcommittee on Railroads on the need for Congressional action to force the industry to make significant strides in combating fatigue in order to reduce the number of accidents in which it plays a role.
- Fatigued crews pose a hazard to your communities, and we ask for your support for our efforts to eliminate excessive limbo time.