'Human Factor Incident' Caused Derailment

CSX answered the "why" behind Saturday's derailment, and their plan for compensating personal property. But for others, the losses sustained will never be recovered.

By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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A young married couple living in Cobblestone were among the roughly 50 people who showed up at the gravel VRE Park Lot in Fredericksburg Wednesday afternoon to hear from Randy Marcus, CSX’s director of VA, WV, & DC State Relations, apologize for and explain Saturday night’s derailment.

Those in attendance heard a lot about safety, and about paying people for their property losses. Shalan and Alexandria O’Connor remained concerned, however, about how they could be compensated for the important sentimental items they lost in the crash.

“We lost everything,” Shalan said. “Pretty much anything sentimental,” Alexandra chimed in. The items lost included “all of our wedding [memories]…. Stuff from my late aunt who died from COVID.”

CSX Apologizes, Explains

Randy Marcus explains the events that led to Saturday night’s derailment.

“First of all, I want to apologize for the incident on Saturday night,” Marcus began. “I know that a derailment with property damage in your neighborhood can be unsettling and concerning.”

So what happened? According to Marcus:

This was what we call a human factor incident. The train’s locomotive was having mechanical issues. The crew was parking the train on the Fredericksburg yard tracks to take the locomotive back to Richmond. This is an uncommon situation. One section of the train was tied down improperly … those cars rolled down the track into … a split derail, which caused several cars to leave the track before reaching the main line. A hopper car struck the sound wall, and the sound wall then toppled into the garages.

The derail devices, Marcus explained, “are safeguards to prevent loose cars from rolling onto the mainline track by intentionally sending them off the tracks.”

He went on to note that these devices were too close to adjacent properties.

CSX is going to take several steps to prevent another event like this from recurring, he said.

First, CSX is going to move the derail device so that if there is a next time it will derail cars further from neighboring property. CSX will also review the location of derail devices “across our network” to make sure they are a safe distance from adjacent property.

Second, the company is going to provide training for “securing equipment in uncommon situations” Marcus said.

Questions Abound

Marcus stressed throughout the following 30-plus-minute question-and-answer period that making things right with property owners was a high priority for CSX.

A young girl who lives in the apartment complex attended the event with her father, and she asked what was going to be done for those whose garages were destroyed.

“We’re going to do everything to make sure that you’re made whole from the property damage … and to compensate the apartment complex when they rebuild.”

Safety, however, dominated the session.

Asked about the employee who improperly tied down the car that led to the derailment, Marcus said that the company was taking “an education and improvement approach from my understanding.”

Concerning the issue of why the cars were not properly secured and if there wasn’t someone to double-check the work of the person responsible for securing the car, Marcus told the Advance: “I do not know that answer off-hand…,” but he promised to get back to us with an answer.

Mayor Kerry Devine had several pointed questions for Marcus. Picking up on the comment in his opening remarks about getting rid of the derailment line, she asked if there was a timetable. “I’m not sure, … that’s something that I assume would be a follow up deliverable,” Marcus said.

Devine followed up by asking if there were a shorter fix.

“I think that whatever we would do to move it would be as quick as any other … alternative [fix],” Marcus said. He, did, however, promise to get a timeline.

As for the O’Connors …

We were told “to document everything that we had,” Shalan told the Advance, and to provide “pictures, which doesn’t make sense to us,” he said. “Who takes pictures of their garage?”

And going back in to take inventory is currently not in play.

“It’s hard to document when the wall and the roof and the beams and the twisted timbers are on top,” Shalan said.

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