Amtrak's Safety culture

[fulham]

While I am extremely upset about the accident in Philadelphia the other day, I also have questions regarding Amtrak's safety culture. As many of you have probably seen, this month's Trains has an article by Don Phillips about Amtrak's Safe-2-Safer program and how it has not been effective in reducing injuries, and how many employees are not even aware of it.

I have ridden the NEC many times and the operation has always appeared to be safe, but it is one thing to be a passenger, another to be part of an operation where hundreds of trains are operating at very high speeds on short leeways. I worked in the trucking industry for over 30 years and worked for companies where safety was nothing but a slogan, to where the smallest infraction (speeding-wise) was dealt with through progressive discipline. I came across employees who would never own up to being involved in backing accidents to ones who really were invested in maintaining a strong safety culture.

So my question is, what is the safety culture on the NEC? We obviously know train 188 was speeding, but we do not know why. I know safety is enforced, but with what just happened and the Don Phillips article, is it a slogan or is it a strong culture?

 

[Seaboard92]

I reported a crew for sleeping once and they're still working

 

[jis]

I reported a crew for sleeping once and they're still working

Did that crew have any safety function?

 

[Ryan]

And were they supposed to be doing it at the time?

 

[VentureForth]

My guess is that if they were supposed to be sleeping, then they would be in their private roomette. Otherwise, they certainly can't be proactively promote safe operations while being asleep.

 

[Ryan]

At this point we don't even know if they were on a train.

 

[jis]

Sometimes the discussions we have here seem to be ideal foundation for an Alice in Wonderland kind of story

 

[Seaboard92]

It was the conductor of the train in the lounge car actually. I was sitting in there and I saw it. And heard it she snored rather loud

 

[andersone]

Fulham used the right word "culture" in terms of what is needed everywhere in terms of safety. I work for one of the highest decorated safety contractors for a government agency (only six companies across a very large number of contractors have achieved our status) that promotes safety. It took us about five years to get to to a plateau, and we have maintained that for another five.

The path to get there is complex but there are several essential elements along the way. First, management must buy in 1000 percent. Mr. Boardman and every one of his minions needs to do a walkdown every month we a crew in the yard. They need a stop work policy that is believable. They need worker involvement pre and post job analysis - not just the supervisors or planners.

Most importantly the program needs to be positive not punitive. Will you keep me safe if I keep you safe? That's how we just got 1.5 million hours without a lost time. Oh, for those who like to wave the bloody flag, our union rules put Amtrak to shame. They have a cakewalk compared to how we live. Then again we respect each other, so we don't need flags at all. Getting there is neither easy nor cheap, but well worth it. And the stuff we work around is way more hazardous than anything Amtrak has to deal with.

 

[neroden]

I've seen different safety cultures at different parts of Amtrak (different parts of the country). It's a very siloed organization.

 

[FormerOBS]

The most effective safety "program" is training, experience, and peer pressure and support. I haven't read Phillips' piece yet, but hope to soon. I had opportunities to participate in Safe to Safer, but never did because I would have had to leave my regular duties to observe others doing their jobs. I thought it was kind of ridiculous to stand around watching them when I could be getting something done. So I preferred to continue to do my job as safely as I could, and promote safe practices among those I worked with. I often worked as a Training Resource Employee (TRE) to help train new hires, and proper safety procedures were part and parcel of that training. Safety is not separate from the job. It is part of the way you do EVERYTHING. You stand safely; you direct passengers safely; you walk safely; you turn safely; you stoop or bend safely. It is infused in everything you do.

Tom