Railroad Accident Report: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Hi-Rail Maintenance Vehicle Strikes Two Wayside Workers Near the Rockville Station, Rockville, Maryland, January 26, 2010

On January 26, 2010, about 1:40 a.m., a hi-rail vehicle, a truck or automobile that can be operated on either highways or rails, operating about 0.9 miles north of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Rockville Metro Station struck and fatally injured two automatic train control technicians who were working on the right-of-way replacing an impedance bond between the tracks. The hi-rail vehicle was traveling down the track in the reverse gear at about 13 mph. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was inadequate safeguards by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to protect roadway workers from approaching hi-rail vehicles, and to ensure hi-rail operators were aware of any wayside work being performed. Contributing to the accident was the inadequate communication of vital information concerning ongoing work by the Operations Control Center; the lack of an appropriate and effective lookout by the hi-rail vehicle operator and crew to carefully observe the track on approach; and the ineffective lookout for trains and/or hi-rail vehicles on the part of the automatic train control technicians.

• Record URL:
  http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/RAR1204.pdf
• 
• Summary URL:
  http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Pages/RAR1204.aspx
• Corporate Authors:

  National Transportation Safety Board

  490 L'Enfant Plaza, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20594
• Publication Date: 2012-5-17

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Photos;
• Pagination: 34p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash causes; Crash investigation; Fatalities; Maintenance personnel; Railroad crashes; Railroad safety; Work zone safety
• Uncontrolled Terms: Road-rail vehicles
• Geographic Terms: Rockville (Maryland)
• Subject Areas: Railroads; Safety and Human Factors; I80: Accident Studies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01446030
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: NTSB/RAR-12/04/SUM, PB2012-916304, Notation 8392
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 14 2012 11:14AM