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Chalk up another E.H. Harriman Group A gold award for Norfolk Southern Railway, which now has attained the rail industry’s highest safety honor for 22-straight years. Yesterday, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) named E.H. Harriman Award winners and proclaimed 2010 as the safest year ever for railroads, based on significant reductions in train accidents and employee casualties.
 
In Group A, which honors railroads that log 15 million manhours or more annually, NS won gold, CSX Transportation took the silver award and Union Pacific Railroad received bronze.
 
In Group B, which recognizes railroads that log 4 million to 15 million manhours, the gold award went to Kansas City Southern Railway Co. for the fifth year in a row, while silver went to Canadian Pacific (U.S. operations) and bronze went to CN (U.S. operations).
 
Winners in Group C — railroads registering between 250,000 and 4 million manhours — include the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad, gold; Missouri and Northern Arkansas Railroad, silver; and Paducah and Louisville Railway, bronze. In Group S&T, which recognizes switching and terminal companies logging more than 250,000 manhours, the Gary Railway took gold, Port Terminal Railroad Association won silver and Union Railroad grabbed bronze.
 
The AAR also recognized one railroad in each category for showing the most improvement in injury rates between 2009 and 2010: CSXT in Group A; CN (U.S. operations) in Group B; Pacific Harbor Line in Group C; and the Port Terminal Railroad Association in Group S&T.

Founded in 1913 by the late Mary W. Harriman in memory of her husband, railroad pioneer Edward H. Harriman, the awards recognize railroads that achieved the lowest casualty rates per 200,000 manhours. The awards are administered by the E.H. Harriman Memorial Awards Institute with support from the Mary W. Harriman Foundation. All data is documented by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

Meanwhile, the AAR also named UP Machinist John Kirwan the 2010 winner of the Harold F. Hammond Award. Under his leadership, UP’s Hinkle facility went more than 1,400 days without a reportable injury and achieved a zero FRA-reportable injury rate since January 2007, the equivalent of more than 1.7 million manhours, according to the AAR.

Elected by his peers to lead the facility’s safety efforts, Kirwan has “consistently raised the bar and created a culture of safety at the Hinkle facility,” AAR officials said in a prepared statement. As a “Total Safety Culture” facilitator, his “enthusiasm, expertise and energy” helped to increase employee participation in the program from 33 percent to 96 percent in two years, they said.
 
Kirwan developed the facility’s “Smoke Detector Program,” which is based on the concept that an analysis of employee safety observations can help address small safety problems before they become large ones. He also helped implement a terminal-wide emergency alert system that will go online at year’s end.

The Harold F. Hammond Award recognizes an individual railroad employee who has demonstrated outstanding safety achievement in the preceding year. Established in 1986, it is named for the late Harold F. Hammond, a former Transportation Association of America president who served many years as chairman of the Harriman Awards selection committee.
 
The AAR also honored seven other rail employees with certificates of commendation for their efforts to enhance safety: Nelson Beveridge, a CN conductor; Claude Fields, an Amtrak machinist; John Hebda, a CSXT carman; Jesse Jackson, a KCSR section foreman; Rick Spears, a BNSF Railway Co. locomotive engineer; Monty Wilkerson, an NS locomotive engineer; and Bruce Wold, a CP track inspector.