The woman involved in this tragic accident was a 20+ year member and volunteer at the museum. She had been involved in operations as well as many other facets of the museum's activities, and she knew how to behave around trains. It is not yet publicly known exactly what happened, but we all know that when we are around ANY heavy equipment an accidental slip or a split second lapse of attention is all that is required to end a life.

We need to remember both her and also the train crew. These volunteers are serious railroaders and will be badly affected by this incident, especially as they all knew the victim.

Our condolences to her family, her friends and the crew.

I'm wearing my Operation Lifesaver hat right now.

There have been two more incidents which fit within this thread where contractor employes who had proper business on railroad property were injured or killed. This is three incidents in three days involving people who were supposed to be there. Three in three days is three too many. It is three too many for three weeks, three months or three years. It is three too many, period.

We don't know quite what happened in either North Freedom or Kansas City except that each cost somebody's life. What is fairly clear from the news reports of the Harrison incident is that an Amtrak contractor probably ignored a STOP signal in the form of crossbucks, flashing lights and gates and struck the side of a PATH train.

If you follow the FRA safety statistics you'll note that employee accidents and injury rates tend toward an inverse bell curve. They occur most often either early in the career when there is a lack of experience or toward the end when complacency sets in. This does not mean that they don't happen in the middle. As the gentleman above said that one slip or that one fleeting moment of inattention can cost a life and that can occur at any time. Tourist lines and operating museums are no different. The hardest job a boss can ever have is to knock on a door and say that someone is never coming home. Don't make somebody have to knock on your door.

If you work on the railroad PLEASE BE CAREFUL OUT THERE and if you don't belong there STAY OFF, STAY AWAY and STAY ALIVE

Mike Allen
for New Jersey Operation Lifesaver

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/07/post_356.html
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/07/15/bnsf-contractor-dies-after-falling-into-train-car-full-grain-in-kansas-city/

I don't know how many times in the nine years I was with CSX I sat in a crew van at 58th St. in Philly waiting to recrew a train coming from NJ while an Eastbound trailer train swapping out crews at RG Tower (about 5,000' away) fouled the grade crossing. They always had a crew waiting to get on, and the swap never took more than about 5 minutes, but it never failed that local residents couldn't wait a few minutes, and inevitably numerous people would climb over, under and through the train - including mothers passing their babies across the couplers! Either one of us on the crew, or the van driver would have to call the train and tell them not to move until the trespassers were clear. In case you're wondering, it just wasn't a good idea to get out and tell them to get away from the train in that neighborhood, especially at night. It's truly a wonder that a tragedy has not happened there. In case you're additionally wondering, CSX only had FOUR police officers assigned to the territory between Philly and Baltimore at that time, so spread a little thin, and mostly concerned with break-ins on intermodal trains, not trespassers.