Freight railroad BNSF is generally striving to improve safety on a consistent basis, but that message doesn’t always reach front-line workers who often don’t feel comfortable reporting safety concerns for fear of being disciplined, according to an assessment released Wednesday by regulators.
The Federal Railroad Administration’s review of BNSF’s safety culture also found that the company continues to be held back by some of the same issues that have been common across the industry for years.
This new report is the second one the agency has completed to address railroad safety concerns following the disastrous February 2023 Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, as it works to review all the major railroads.
The BNSF review is more positive than last summer’s Norfolk Southern report, which said executives at that railroad were too often satisfied with only doing the minimum for safety.
The amount of tantrums and cowboy behavior from people in the “industry”, which is mostly automated warehouses/robots for me, is ridiculous. I don’t fucking care about the schedule when it conflicts with safety. The PM and customer can go fuck themselves. I absolutely despise when people encourage unsafe practices, cut corners, or bully their coworkers for being pussies. These people tell stories of near misses like it is a badge of honor.
JFC on a stick. Lock your shit out. Wear the damn vest. Wear the damn shoes. Wear the fucking hat. Wear all the rest of your required PPE. This isn’t Fashion Week in Paris. Everybody should be able to go home every day with all their limbs intact. You are not just hurting yourself. You are hurting everyone. There is no fucking reason to traumatize your coworkers because you were too fucking lazy to lock the equipment out and got your arm yanked into some conveyor. Nobody needs that.