While working with RCO, a BNSF employee was involved in an accident, which injured his arm.
Crew consisted of two remote control operators (RCO) and a student RCO who reported for duty at 7:58 AM for job # BARR106 13. Throughout the morning the crew went about their switching operations with the student, under the supervision of the RCO operating the Operator Control Unit (OCU).
At approximately 9:30 AM the crew pulled 31 cars from track B-16, switched out 3 cars and then doubled the cut onto track B13 in order to pick up 17 additional cars. At this point, one RCO and the student were on the west end of the cut of cars and the other RCO was on the east end (on the locomotive). Once the double was made and the 45 cars were ready to pull west, the student and the RCO mounted the A-end of car, AOK 27406, a car load of plywood, described as a center beam bulkhead flat car, which was the leading car. The student was on the northside, the RCO on the southside of the flat car. The other RCO was sitting in the locomotive.
The student RCO then gave the command to the OCU for the locomotive and the 45 cars to shove from east to west at 10 mph. The data download reveals that the movement was traveling at approximately 8 MPH when the incident occurred. The equipment traveled approximately 25 car lengths (1600') when the student's
OCU sent a command sent a command to "pitch" the control to the RCO in the locomotive. The fail safe mechanism of the CANAC Remote Control System will automatically institute a penalty application of the air system and immediately stop any movement if a pitch is requested while the equipment is moving. At this point the investigation has revealed that the pitch button is located directly below (2") the reset button. (Note: As a safety feature, the reset button must be activated every 50 seconds in order to prevent an emergency application of the air brake system).
The student hired onto the railroad in June 2003 and completed his four month conductor training program. This was the first day of the student's OJT program, having completed his classroom training on Friday, 10/10. He had approximately two hours of actual OCU operation and he may have inadvertently depressed the wrong button. Student was treated and released from the local
hospital, the RCO has minor injuries that include; contusion and swelling to the right arm.
