CSX Safety Issues Cloud Liability Deal

TAMPA - As the state considers accepting liability on a rail line it will share with CSX Transportation, the company's workers have raised concerns about CSX's past safety practices.

The state is proposing to spend $649 million in a deal to buy 61 miles of CSX tracks for a commuter line to serve the Orlando area. CSX would continue to operate freight trains on the line but the state would take liability for all accidents involving commuter trains, even those caused by CSX.

Union complaints led to a federal investigation, completed last October, that confirmed CSX used intimidation to discourage workers from reporting injuries suffered on the job. Inaccurate injury reporting can disguise serious safety problems, federal regulators say.

The same complaints spurred a congressional hearing at which a CSX engineer testified about working conditions on the railroad's Orlando-area line, the same one the state plans to buy from CSX.

In written testimony, the engineer, David Cook, said that he was required to work more than 10 hours a day, even after warning his supervisors that he didn't think it was safe to operate a locomotive after such long hours.

Under the state's proposed liability agreement with CSX, the company would take responsibility for damage to its own trains, but the state would be responsible for any damage to a commuter train or passengers, even if a CSX worker caused a freight train to hit a commuter train.

The deal is scheduled to be debated today in the Senate Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Committee.

CSX: Harassment Cases Isolated

Responding to the Federal Rail Administration findings, CSX officials say they don't tolerate or condone the improvement of safety data through unethical or improper means.

At the congressional hearing in October, CSX vice president David Brown testified that the company has a policy "prohibiting intimidation or harassment calculated to prevent or discourage a person from receiving proper medical treatment or from reporting an accident or injury."

He conceded that some of the harassment cases identified by federal rail investigators had occurred, but said they were isolated and the company has taken steps to address the problems.

The investigative report, which was completed Oct. 17 but hasn't been formally released, said that the company had disciplined more than 10 officers for harassing and intimidating workers. In addition, at least three managers were fired "for covering up an injury or for mishandling an injury report."

Nevertheless, federal rail investigators said CSX should be fined because its actions violated federal laws. Railroad companies are required to report all incidents that result in a worker needing medical treatment. Federal Rail Administration chief Joseph Boardman said the requirement was a cornerstone of the agency's mission. Without it, the agency could not keep track of railroad safety.

In their Oct. 17 report, investigators noted that no action would be taken against the company or the supervisors involved until they had been able to provide information in their defense. No fines have yet been levied.

Unions 'Shocked And Outraged'

The investigation that led to the Oct. 17 report began with complaints from two railroad unions, the United Transportation Union and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.

In early August 2006, the union presidents wrote to CSX Chief Executive Officer Michael Ward to say they were "shocked and outraged that CSX Transportation is engaged in targeted selective stalking, harassment and intimidation of its train and engine service crews - actions that we understand to be on orders from senior CSX officials.

"The obvious purpose of the stalking and harassment is to intimidate injured CSX employees from reporting on-the-job injuries - actions the Federal Railroad Administration has condemned in the past and said would be turned over to the Justice Department for investigation and prosecution if found to continue."

The letter included examples of a worker who was told that reporting an injury could damage his career. Another was told that seeking medical attention would trigger increased efficiency testing and an automatic failure.

According to the investigative report, CSX denied the union's allegations. So the unions complained to the FRA, providing details of dozens of members' experiences.

The agency was especially concerned to receive the complaints because it had addressed worker harassment and intimidation with CSX in 2003, the report said.

In the federal agency's most recent inquiry, the investigators interviewed 34 CSX employees and 36 CSX officers at more than nine locations.

Through the interviews, the investigators "confirmed that CSX officers often discuss Federal Railroad Administration accident/incident reportability with the injured employee en route to ... or at the treatment facility, and remind the employee" of FRA rules.

"The interviews also confirmed that CSXT officers will sometimes 'remind' an injured employee that a reportable injury would be a mark on his or her personal record and may have an adverse effect on his or her career. This behavior violates the law."

In addition, investigators confirmed that when injured workers ask to be excused from work, they are told to log themselves as sick or suspended, rather than injured.

"When this happens and lost days are improperly recorded to FRA, the accident/incident reporting regulation is violated."

Engineer Takes A Stand

David Cook's problems began when he reported other workers' complaints about being required to work long hours, the former CSX locomotive engineer told the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure committee Oct 25. Cook did not return phone calls from the Tribune.

In response, the union worked out an agreement for workers to be limited to 10-hour, five day a week shifts. In late 2005, he said in his written testimony, "I was told by a CSX manager ... that if I couldn't work 12 hours EVERY DAY, that CSX, would pull me out of service to find out why I couldn't work long days."

One day about three weeks later, after being kept on past 10 hours, Cook asked his supervisor if he could leave. "I was tired and felt unsafe since the Locomotive Engineer is the sole operator of the locomotives," wrote Cook, an engineer with CSX for 34 years.

Cook was allowed to go, but the next morning, his supervisor told him he had failed three operations tests.

A week after that, Cook was kept on the job after 10 1/2 hours, he wrote, even though a relief crew was ready to take over. On overtime, Cook injured his back during a train coupling. It was so severe, "I had to report my only career injury after over 12,000 working days," he wrote. Tests showed he ruptured four discs in his back and lower neck.

During the next several weeks, Cook wrote, he and others were subjected to repeated testing of their knowledge of railroad operations. And in March he was given 85 days of unpaid disciplinary leave because of test failures.

He alone was disciplined, he wrote, saying the company's goal was to fire him over his complaints. "Terminating me would send a message to other CSX employees not to become injured or not to report injuries in the future."

The federal investigators did not substantiate that injured workers were subjected to increased testing by CSX.

Cook is now on railroad disability, pending further CSX investigations. He sued CSX in federal court in July 2006.