UTU member dead in Iowa switching accident

MASON CITY, Iowa – Trainman Georgiy Soloviyov, 35, became the fifth UTU member killed on duty in 2012 following a Union Pacific yard accident here early July 31. Mason City is some 130 miles north of Des Moines, near the Minnesota border.

Soloviyov, of Stanhope, Iowa, and a member of UTU Local 867 (Des Moines) had seven years of service. Reports indicate he was part of a three-person conventional switching crew when pinned between two cuts of freight cars.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Railroad Administration are investigating, with assistance from the UTU Transportation Safety Team.

Four UTU rail members have been killed in accidents in 2012 and a bus member was murdered on the job. Ten UTU members were killed in on-the-job rail accidents in 2011, and eight in 2010.

George, as he was known, was a native of Kiev, Ukraine, who married an American serving there as a missionary. They relocated to the United States and George earned his American citizenship in 2004. Surviving, in addition to his wife, Lori, are two sons, Yuri and Aleksei, and two daughters, Tatyana and Katya.