On June 13, a 23 car derailment occurred in Morgan County, Tenn. The BLET Safety Task Force is assisting NTSB in the investigation.
The BLET Safety Task Force has received Party Status from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to assist with the investigation into a Norfolk Southern derailment that occurred in Tennessee last week. According to media reports, 23 cars of a mixed freight train derailed on June 11 in Morgan County, Tenn., a remote section of Eastern Tennessee. Ethanol spilled and a fire occurred. There were no injuries. In the days since the derailment, ethanol has been detected in the Emory River.
BLET Vice President Randy Fannon, who also serves as Chairman of the union’s Safety Task Force, said the BLET cannot publicly comment or speculate on the cause of these accidents due to its Party Status with NTSB. However, the task force will investigate the accidents from the viewpoint of locomotive engineers and trainmen to help determine what occurred and how to prevent similar accidents from happening in the future. The BLET became the first labor union in the railroad industry to establish a formal accident investigation team when it created the Safety Task Force in 1989.
Blueline Security photo