DENVER (KDVR) — A newly released investigation report found that a crossover switch caused train cars to derail and collide in Denver, seriously injuring a rail worker and causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage.
On Aug. 5, a railworker was hospitalized with serious injuries to their right leg after a train derailed at the BNSF Globeville Yard in Denver. About a month later, the National Transportation Safety Board released its preliminary investigation findings.
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According to the safety board, just after midnight on Aug. 5, a 103 railcar locomotive arrived in Denver from Nebraska, and a BNSF Railway conductor was working to get half the cars into the track before he was “thrown” and “toppled” by the railcar.
The investigation found that the crew was performing a “shoving movement,” which pushes railcars from the back with a locomotive. While the railcars were moving back, a crossover switch, a mechanism that allows rail equipment to move between tracks, was lined up to the adjacent track.
So, instead of moving down the track, the railcars moved to the adjacent track and collided with standing railcars. This collision derailed three standing railcars and five railcars from the train in motion…