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Total rail fatalities up 9.3% in 2010 | | Friday, February 04, 2011 |
U. S. railroads reported 705 fatalities in 2010, up 9.5% from the 645 reported in 2009, according to a preliminary count released by the Federal Railroad Administration’s Office of Safety Analysis.
Train accidents caused eight fatalities, compared with three in 2009. There were 19 employee fatalities, up from 15 in the prior year.
But the overwhelming majority of fatalities last year were caused by trespassing and grade crossing collisions and thus were beyond the direct control of the railroads. Trespassing deaths increased 8.9% to 428. Grade crossing collisions caused 245 fatalities, up 9.9%.
A total of 763 large and small railroads reported 12,775 accidents and incidents lest year, up less than 1% from 2009.
There were 118 train collisions, down 3.3%; 1,197 derailments, down 1.9%; and 909 yard accidents, down 1.7%.
Track causes as a factor in train accidents were up 1.2% to 565; equipment causes, down 9.2% to 217; signal causes, up 20% to 54; and human factors, down 6% to 561.
The train accident rate, which takes into account exposure to risk, was down 7.28% in 2010, and the employee-on-duty accident rate declined 5.13%.
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