NTSB investigating fatal accidents involving BNSF, KCS workers

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has begun investigations into two recent fatal accidents involving Class Is.

The agency is investigating a March 3 accident in La Mirada, California, in which a BNSF Railway Co. employee was fatally injured during yard operations. 

The employee died after being crushed between two trains, local news media reported.

Also, the NTSB has been investigating a Dec. 23, 2020, incident in which a conductor of a Kansas City Southern train was struck by the train operating in a rail yard in Tupelo, Mississippi. The conductor died later that day in a nearby hospital, according to the NTSB's executive summary of the ongoing investigation.

The train consisted of three locomotives and 22 rail cars. At the time of the accident, a crew was in the process of switching rail cars in preparation for coupling them. The conductor was riding on a U.S. DOT-111 tank car at the lead end of the reversing train to protect the train's reverse movement for the train coupling operation.

Investigators will focus on KCS's safety rules pertaining to riding on tank cars, NTSB officials said in the executive summary.