The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada is looking into a workplace injury that occurred in Windsor this past winter.
A report has been publicly released by the TSB, which outlines how the injury took place at the Ojibway Yard in Windsor, and involved a maintenance-of-way (MOW) employee with the Essex Terminal Railway Company (ETR).
On the morning of February 16, a crew was conducting switching in the yard when two kicked rail cars moving at about eight kilometres per hour struck an employee who had been clearing snow from the switch points.
The employee was treated in hospital with serious injuries.
According to the TSB report, guidelines regarding track protection were not followed at the time of the accident. The Canadian Rail Operating Rules (COPR) require that the switches be locked or a red flag or light be placed between the rails.
"There were no specific instructions or procedures at Ojibway Yard to lock out and flag tracks for protection when clearing snow from switches," read the report. "In this occurrence, the MOW employee did not place red flags between the rails or lock out the switches."
The COPR also requires that proper, effective communication is vital for safety. The report indicated that the MOW employee was not provided with a radio for communicating his location with crewmates. Routine pre-job briefings also failed to cover potential hazards.
"In this occurrence, upon arriving at the west end of the yard, the MOW employee held a job briefing with the brakeman and a separate one with the conductor," read the report. "Job briefings are intended for employees to discuss the planned work, their responsibilities, the relevant hazards, ways to eliminate hazards or protect against them, and the type of protection provided to carry out the work. However, in this instance, the job briefings did not cover hazards or protection. More specifically, a detailed discussion about what switching moves the crew would carry out, the intended path of the cars, and the MOW employee’s planned location during these moves were not discussed."
The report continued with the corrective action taken by the ETR.
"This procedure now requires MOW employees to lock out and flag tracks before clearing snow," read the report. "It also stipulates that all switching operations must be stopped until MOW employees have completed snow clearing or have cleared the tracks, and that operating crews may not get back onto the tracks until they have approval from the yard coordinator and from MOW personnel."
MOW employees are also now provided with communication devices. ETR has also begun a policy at Ojibway Yard prohibiting operating crews and MOW employees from working there at the same time.
