Cooperative Mutual Insurance Company

News Details

10.07.2009

Harvest means increased activity, longer hours and a push to get grain in and out of your facility. When a location utilizes rail, the normal hazards that come with the harvest rush are magnified. Railcars weighing140-ton or more are unforgiving when basic safety precautions are overlooked for the sake of speed.

No one knows that better than Brian McNaughton, director of Curriculum Development for Rail Safe Training, Inc., a firm based in Sioux City, IA, that provides rail yard safety training for cooperatives and ag processing plants.

Lack of following basic safety procedures can not only lead to damaged cars and expensive derailments, but human tragedy as well. In 2008, an employee at an ag processing plant in Hastings, NE, was killed while riding a rail car as it entered an enclosure, and recently an Iowa worker lost a leg while tripping and falling under the car during an uncoupling procedure.

To help avoid accidents, McNaughton says businesses with rail yards need to implement a comprehensive safety program. “Employees at a cooperative may be used to working around equipment,” he says, “but they may not understand the mass of energy they’re dealing with when working around railcars.”

According to McNaughton, many accidents are the result of lapses in three basic areas of safety. Pay attention to these areas and you’ll better avoid those catastrophic incidents.

Are employees setting railcar hand brakes?
“We’re finding that many employees are failing to set hand safety brakes on railcars,” says McNaughton, adding that it’s a very unsafe practice to leave cars unattended without the hand safety brakes applied. “When you pull the locomotive or power source away from the cars, air in the lines is discharged and air brakes are automatically set,” he explains. “However, those air brakes are only required to hold for three minutes. While they may hold for longer periods, air can leak, releasing the air brake. You should always set the hand brakes to be on the safe side.”

Follow the blue flag procedure
The blue flag procedure is the lock out/tag out practice of the rail industry—designed to protect workers who are working on rolling equipment like locomotives and rail cars. Employees, says McNaughton, must use blue signal protection when doing anything from repairing a car to hooking up conveyors or augers in order to fill cars with grain. The procedure consists of displaying a blue signal and locking the switch to divert any other cars that may be approaching to another track, avoiding dangerous collisions.

Communication is the key
First, says McNaughton, regularly communicate to your employees the importance of basic safety practices. For example, stress the 25-foot-rule. “You should never walk within 25 feet of the end of a car,” says the safety consultant. He explains that due to the slack when cars are coupling, a car can instantaneously jump 10 to 12 feet when being joined to another car—extremely dangerous to anyone standing too close. Second, everyone in the rail yard must know their duties, what tracks are being used and what is happening. “We really push three-way communication,” he says, explaining that messages between employees in a rail yard must be clear. “If I send you a message on radio, you acknowledge that you received that message and repeat it word for word, and then I confirm that the directions you received are correct. It’s imperative that every move you are going to make with a rail car or locomotive is verified and that everyone is on the same page.”

McNaughton agrees that accidents may be more likely during the pressures of harvest season, when the turnaround time for employees to fill multiple rail cars and get them back on the main rail lines is short. It’s not the only time, however, to concentrate on safe rail yard practices. “If your employees have bad safety habits,” he says, “it doesn’t really matter whether they’re going to be moving one car or 100, the bad habit will eventually catch up with you.”

If you are interested in additional information on rail yard training and safety contact Rail Safe Training, Inc. at 712-212-4145.

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