FRA analysis published in 2024 shows that participating railroads (Amtrak and smaller freight and passenger railroads) have seen an approximate 20% reduction in total train accidents or incidents per million train miles since participating in the close call program, compared with a 3% reduction over the same period for non-participating railroads. And in several early pilot programs, derailments were reduced by as much as 40%.
Program advocates say the big “Class I” freight railroads’ reluctance to participate shows the industry failed to learn any lessons from the 38-car derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, in 2023 that engulfed 35 cars in flames and forced the evacuation of homes in a 1-mile radius.
For the last decade, more than 1,000 trains have derailed every year in the United States, and one accident a day, on average, surpasses $100,000 in damages, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
On April 3, 2016, an Amtrak train barreled down a track near Chester at an authorized speed of over 100 mph. By the time the train engineer saw workers and equipment on the track and engaged the emergency brake, it was too late. The train hit a backhoe with a worker inside at 99 mph. That worker and the track supervisor, who was hit by debris, were killed and 39 other people were injured.
Amtrak had joined C³RS, but in the midst of contentious contract negotiations and a strict new Amtrak zero-tolerance safety policy, rail unions had temporarily opted out of the close call program and a separate peer-to-peer safety feedback program.
The NTSB investigation of the accident revealed more than two dozen unsafe conditions, “many involving safety rule violations and risky behaviors by workers” across several levels of Amtrak’s organization, including track maintenance workers and dispatchers and management. The NTSB observed “an inconsistent vision of safety throughout the organization, hostile attitudes between labor and management about no-tolerance rule violations, and ill-equipped work crews.”
On April 3, 2016, an Amtrak train barreled down a track near Chester at an authorized speed of over 100 mph. By the time the train engineer saw workers and equipment on the track and engaged the emergency brake, it was too late. The train hit a backhoe with a worker inside at 99 mph. That worker and the track supervisor, who was hit by debris, were killed and 39 other people were injured.
Amtrak had joined C³RS, but in the midst of contentious contract negotiations and a strict new Amtrak zero-tolerance safety policy, rail unions had temporarily opted out of the close call program and a separate peer-to-peer safety feedback program.
The NTSB investigation of the accident revealed more than two dozen unsafe conditions, “many involving safety rule violations and risky behaviors by workers” across several levels of Amtrak’s organization, including track maintenance workers and dispatchers and management. The NTSB observed “an inconsistent vision of safety throughout the organization, hostile attitudes between labor and management about no-tolerance rule violations, and ill-equipped work crews.”
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