SMART UnionHOXIE, Ark. – The National Transportation Safety Board is now investigating a deadly train crash in Lawrence County.
Sunday, Two Union Pacific freight trains collided head on, near the tracks off Highway 67. Two crew members were killed, another two members were injured.
Read the complete story at Television Station WREG.
HOXIE, Ark. – Officials are investigating on the scene of a freight train collision in Lawrence County that claimed the lives of two individuals and injured two others.
At around 3 a.m. Sunday (Aug. 17), Arkansas State Police were notified of a collision between two Union Pacific freight trains in Hoxie, which is about 25 miles northwest of Jonesboro.
Read the complete story at www.thv11.com.
Union Pacific Corp. says in a court filing that it and employees overpaid federal railroad retirement taxes by $74.8 million, and that refunds are in order for both the company and workers.
The Omaha-based freight railroad made its case in a civil complaint filed this week in U.S. District Court in Omaha. The complaint names the U.S. government and seeks $44.2 million in refunds to the railroad and $30.6 million to workers who also overpaid via payroll withholding.
Read more from Omaha.com.
DALLAS – BNSF Railway Co., the only U.S. railroad ordered by the regulator (Surface Transportation Board) to provide weekly service updates, is losing market share to Union Pacific Corp., its main competitor, as train speeds slow and on-time deliveries drop.
The shift in market share had shown up in carload statistics, Union Pacific Chief Executive Officer Jack Koraleski said Thursday. During the second quarter, the Union Pacific’s loads rose 8.2 percent while those of BNSF, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., gained 4.9 percent.
Read the complete story at Fort Worth Business Press.
CLINTON, Utah – A simple act of kindness is something a 12-year-old boy with an autism spectrum disorder is going to remember for the rest of his life.
Matthew Mancil loves trains.
“I don’t know how it started, but he just absolutely loves them,” Aaron Mancil, Matthew’s father, said.
Read the complete story at the Deseret News.
(Do you know who this conductor is? Email us at news_TD@smart-union.org.)
MAPLE PARK, Ill. – After viewing a video provided by Union Pacific Railroad, Maple Park Police Chief Mike Acosta said it’s likely a 14-year-old boy was engaging in an activity called “breezing” when the teen was fatally struck by a train last month in Maple Park.
Parker Wolfsmith, an eighth-grader at Kaneland Harter Middle School, died May 31. He was struck at about 9:30 p.m. that night at the North Liberty Street railroad crossing in Maple Park. Acosta said he viewed the video at 10:45 a.m. Wednesday, along with representatives from Union Pacific and the Kane County Coroner’s Office. Acosta said he learned of the term breezing from the Union Pacific representative.
BILLINGS, Mont. — U.S. railroads forced to turn over details of their volatile crude oil shipments are asking states to sign agreements not to disclose the information. But some states are refusing, saying Thursday that the information shouldn’t be kept from the public.
Federal officials last month ordered railroads to make the disclosures after a string of fiery tank-car accidents in North Dakota, Alabama, Virginia and Quebec, where 47 people died when a runaway oil train exploded in the town of Lac-Megantic.
The disclosures due midnight Saturday include route details, volumes of oil carried and emergency-response information for trains hauling 1 million gallons or more of crude. That’s the equivalent of 35 tank cars.
Read the complete story at The Washington Post.
Two railroad companies want to prevent the public from getting details about oil shipments through Washington state, information the federal government ordered be given to state emergency managers after several oil-train accidents.
But restricting such information violates the state’s public-records law, so the state has not signed documents from the rail companies seeking confidentiality, said Mark Stewart, a spokesman for the Washington Military Department’s Emergency Management Division.
Read the complete story at The Seattle Times.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Union Pacific Railroad has been ordered to reinstate an injured employee and pay the worker more than $85,000 in damages following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA found that the company, based in Omaha, Neb., was in violation of the whistleblower provisions of the Federal Railroad Safety Act for terminating an employee following the reporting of a workplace injury that occurred at the company’s North Platte, Neb., terminal.
Union Pacific has been ordered to pay $10,000 in compensatory and $75,000 in punitive damages, as well as reasonable attorney’s fees. The company must also remove disciplinary information from the employee’s personnel record and provide whistleblower rights information to its employees. Back wages were not sought.
“An employer does not have the right to retaliate against employees who report work-related injuries and safety concerns,” said Marcia P. Drumm, OSHA’s acting regional administrator in Kansas City. “Whistleblower protections play an important role in keeping workplaces safe. Workers should never be forced to choose between safe work practices and keeping their job.”
OSHA’s investigation upheld the employee’s allegation that the railroad terminated his employment in retaliation for reporting an injury and for reporting that a company chair was allegedly defective. The employee suffered an injury to his back on Oct. 15, 2012, when the chair he was using collapsed. The employee reported his injury to his supervisor and submitted a personal injury report, noting that the condition of the chair contributed to his injuries.
After the employee reported his injuries, the railroad removed him from service and accused him of violating the company’s workplace violence policy and other work-related rules, and subsequently terminated the employee.
OSHA’s investigation, however, found that the railroad terminated the employee in retaliation for having engaged in protected conduct under the FRSA, and that the railroad had engaged in hostility toward the employee for reporting the injury.
Either party in these cases can file an appeal with the department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges.
OSHA enforces the whistleblower provisions of the FRSA and 21 other statutes protecting employees who report violations of various airline, commercial motor carrier, consumer product, environmental, financial reform, food safety, health care reform, nuclear, pipeline, worker safety, public transportation agency, maritime and securities laws.
Employers are prohibited from retaliating against employees who raise various protected concerns or provide protected information to the employer or to the government. Employees who believe that they have been retaliated against for engaging in protected conduct may file a complaint with the secretary of labor to request an investigation by OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program. Detailed information on employee whistleblower rights, including fact sheets, is available at http://www.whistleblowers.gov.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, http://www.osha.gov.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Union Pacific Corp. has begun operations at a massive new railroad facility in southern New Mexico near both the U.S.-Mexico border and El Paso, Texas.
The Omaha, Neb.,-based railroad will use its newly constructed hub facility in Santa Teresa to transfer cargo between trains and trucks, as well as for refueling engines and changing train crews.
Read the complete story at The Kansas City Star.