ASLRRA announces short-line safety award winners

Late last week, the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) announced the winners of its 2013 safety awards, which include the Safety Person of the Year, Safety Professional of the Year, Most Improved, and President's awards, as well as the Jake Awards and Jake Awards with Distinction.

Jake Awards with Distinction will be bestowed upon 295 ASLRRA member short lines that had no Federal Railroad Administration-reportable injuries during the year. Twenty-eight additional railroads will receive Jake Awards for having an injury rate lower than the industry average of 2.42. For a full list of the winners, click here.

The Jake Awards are named after Lowell S. "Jake" Jacobson, Copper Basin Railway's president and chief operating officer, who created the awards in 1995 and has been a longtime advocate of short-line and rail safety.

ASLRRA also named the following railroads winners of the President's Safety Awards:
• Pacific Harbor Line, for the most hours of injury-free operation and for maintaining the best safety rate in the 250,000 to 500,000 man-hours worked category;
• Union Railroad Company, for maintaining the best safety rate in the 500,000 or more man-hours worked category;
• Missouri & Northern Arkansas Railroad Co., for having the best safety rate in the 150,000 to 250,000 man-hours worked category;
• Ohio Central Railroad Co., for maintaining the best safety rate in the 50,000 to 150,000 man-hours worked category; and
• Minnesota, Dakota & Western Railway Co., for having the highest safety rate in the less than 50,000 man-hours worked category.

Meanwhile, Northern Plains Railroad Inc. received the Most Improved Safety Record Award. The award is based on criteria chosen by the ASLRRA Safety & Training Committee, including demonstrated improved safety over a period of at least three years, evidence of implemented programs, processes and procedures that have resulted in improved safety, and an explanation of capital devoted to safety improvement.

Ozzie España of the Pacific Harbor Line received the Safety Person of the Year Award, while Thomas Leopold of Anacostia Rail Holdings received the Safety Professional of the Year Award.

The association will hand out the awards at its annual conference, which will be held April 22-25 in San Diego.