CSX Railroad Worker Struck By Train; Killed at Seagirt Marine Terminal’s On-Dock Rail Operation [Baltimore, Maryland – 26 June 2023]

Posted by admin on Jun 28, 2023 in Bulletins

Blueoceana Company has learned that a CSX worker was fatally injured when struck by an intermodal freight train Monday evening (26 June 2023) in an accident that has been covered by local media in a somewhat less-than-informative manner. We’re still hoping to better understand the accident’s relevant fact pattern, and will update this post should further information come to us.

What we do know, is that the worker has been described as a “conductor-trainee”, and that his death punctuates the fact that on-dock rail operations can be extremely hazardous.

Regulatory jurisdictions are historically less than crystal clear at on-dock rail facilities, typically owing to the fact that workforces found there are both longshore staff (in this case, ILA workers employed by Ports America Chesapeake) and bonafide underway railroad employees. Turf fights between the Federal Railway Administration and OSHA have occurred with relative frequency, have been the subject of Memoranda of Understanding between those agencies and also arise in periodic, post accident litigation. Blueoceana Company has a fairly good handle on the jurisdictional status at on dock rail operations, and is disposed to assist Subscribers in sorting out the details.

Complicating this particular accident even more, the National Transportation Safety Board is reported to have taken the lead role in its investigation.

UPDATE – 28 June 2023: Information received now provides that the CSX worker, identified as 28 year old conductor trainee Derek Little, fell from a railcar gondola-mounted ladder and under the wheels of the trailing car.

Links To Media Accounts: