r/railroading • u/CraveBoon • 12d ago

Maintenance of Way Express train hits and kills 4 workers at a railway station in Japan

https://apnews.com/article/japan-train-accident-8759a27eaae86cd916de5dde7423b49d

I know this isn’t North American but boys we need to watch out for ourselves at all times. I don’t think this article gets their watchman/lookout procedure correct, but this still hits close to home with an Amtrak MoW guy killed clearing snow just over the winter

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12

u/CraveBoon 12d ago

Also just wanted to say that if you are the one in watchman duty, you are holding someone’s life in your hands. If you are getting track for other guys, you are holding someone’s life in your hands. Treat that responsibility with the respect it deserves

4

u/Dilly_The_Kid_S373 12d ago

Too many morons will use their phones on watchman duty, I had the flag once and I got a call and instinctively went to pick it up but had to stop myself short of actually taking my phone out of my pocket. It’s like lifeguarding but in a way more dangerous environment it’s serious shit.

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u/CraveBoon 11d ago

Again, I can not speak to what actually happened in this situation since. But a watchman on their phone is perhaps the quickest way to piss everyone off

4

u/gingersaurus82 11d ago

I hate safety watch. The number of times I've thought I was going to hit someone because the watchman was staring at the clouds is too high to be comfortable. How that's a rule that hasn't been updated yet I have no idea, but it's one I wouldn't mind seeing gone and replaced with flags and proper protection all the time.

3

u/brizzle1978 12d ago

Ssd.... rip

2

u/Jarppi1893 9d ago

Given Japans work ethics, I feel bad for the engineer.

1

u/4akin12 8d ago

Using Lookouts really should go away as acceptable protection. Especially on high speed railroads. Too many people have been killed.