Amtrak Crash Heightens Safety Concerns-In the wake of a deadly rail crash, Jed Dodd, General Chairman of the Pennsylvania Federation BMWED, says Amtrak policies deter employees from reporting close calls. “If you’re truthful, you get fired.”

Amtrak Crash Heightens Safety Concerns-In the wake of a deadly rail crash, Jed Dodd, General Chairman of the Pennsylvania Federation BMWED, says Amtrak policies deter employees from reporting close calls. “If you’re truthful, you get fired.”
A train struck a maintenance vehicle outside Philadelphia on Sunday, leaving two dead
http://www.wsj.com/articles/amtrak-train-derails-after-crash-near-philad...
An Amtrak train traveling from New York City to Savannah, Ga., partially derailed outside of Philadelphia, killing two people and injuring at least 30 others. Photo: Mark Makela/Getty
By ANDREW TANGEL and SCOTT CALVERT
Updated April 3, 2016 11:59 p.m. ET

CHESTER, Pa.—The deadly crash of an Amtrak train into a maintenance vehicle near Philadelphia highlights persistent problems on the heavily traveled Northeast Corridor and marks the latest in a string of accidents for the national passenger railroad.

The collision early Sunday morning occurred when Amtrak Train 89—bound for Savannah, Ga., from New York with about 330 passengers—struck a backhoe in the Chester, Pa., area, killing the backhoe operator and another Amtrak worker. The crew was part of an operation to replace ballast, or stone that stabilizes the ties and track, on this stretch of the corridor between Washington, D.C., and Boston, a person familiar with the matter said.

The Amtrak collision was at least the fifth serious incident for the railroad over the past 12 months, illustrating rail-safety risks despite a major push to install crash-prevention technology on the country’s passenger and freight railroads. Investigators are likely to focus on why the backhoe wasn’t safely out of the way on adjacent tracks for the train to pass.

“The rail-safety statistics have never been better, but nasty, nasty accidents are still occurring,” said Steven Ditmeyer, a former federal railroad official who is now a consultant. Despite the safety push, he said, “there are still significant vulnerabilities that exist and have to be addressed.”

Sunday’s crash occurred on the edge of Chester, near where a neighborhood of two-story row houses gives way to an industrial area. Chester resident Roberta Brown, who lives near the tracks, said she heard the crash while she and her husband were getting ready for church. “It shook the house,” said Ms. Brown, 62 years old.

The locomotive at the front of the Amtrak train partially derailed, although all of train’s cars remained upright. At least 30 passengers suffered injuries that weren’t considered life-threatening.

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Emergency personnel at the site where an Amtrak train crashed early Sunday morning in the Chester, Pa., area. The passenger train struck a maintenance vehicle, killing two workers. PHOTO: MARK MAKELA/GETTY IMAGES

Keith Kelly, 46 years old, of Brooklyn, was on his way to Washington for business, riding in the third car. He said an engineer hit the horn just before impact. “For 15 seconds it was a little terrifying,” he said.

People were “jostled around” but the impact wasn’t so bad that luggage fell off the above-head racks. Although passengers were upset, he said there wasn’t panic. He finally made it to Washington about seven hours after he was scheduled to arrive.

Steve Forbes, a former presidential candidate who is the chairman and editor in chief of Forbes Media, was toward the rear of the train, en route to Washington so he could appear on C-Span.

“It seemed like an explosion,” said Mr. Forbes, who wasn’t injured. “It was abrupt, so everyone’s coffee flew through the air. Everyone knew that this was not your normal slow down or stop.”

The wreck disrupted Amtrak and commuter-train service between Wilmington, Del., and Philadelphia. Amtrak said Sunday that it expects to operate on a regular schedule on Monday, but there may be some delays between Philadelphia and Wilmington.

A spokesman for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, which operates commuter trains, said a reduced service would resume on Monday with significant delays.

By late Sunday afternoon, personnel in safety jackets could be seen walking along the tracks near the accident site. Two Amtrak trucks arrived pulling construction equipment. Amtrak passenger trains periodically passed by, moving slowly and frequently sounding their horns.

The Sunday crash comes after an Amtrak worker was fatally struck by an NJ Transit commuter train in the area of New Brunswick, N.J., on March 1. Passengers and crew aboard the train weren’t injured.

Also last month, an Amtrak train in Kansas derailed, injuring at least 32 people. The cause hasn’t been determined, although a National Transportation Safety Board official told the Associated Press that a truck carrying livestock feed hit the track and shifted it before the accident occurred.

An Amtrak train struck a backhoe near Philadelphia on Sunday, killing two workers and injuring dozens of passengers. PHOTO: DOMINICK REUTER/REUTERS
Amtrak’s worst recent crash was in May 2015, when a New York-bound train speeding through a tight curve in North Philadelphia derailed, killing eight passengers and injuring more than 200 others, including crew members.

Sunday’s incident occurred even as Amtrak has been trying to figure out why employee injuries increased despite its outlay of more than $70 million since 2009 on a safety program. There were 1,301 employee injuries reported in 2013, up from 695 in 2009, according to a February 2015 report by Amtrak’s Office of Inspector General. The report said it wasn’t clear exactly why injuries were rising.

Meanwhile, the rate of employee deaths has stayed stable. There were only a total of five between 2007 and 2015, according to the Federal Railroad Administration.

Amtrak’s chief of operations suggested to NTSB investigators that the injury increase might be partly because the workforce was aging, the report said. He also suggested that injury reports might be rising because employees were encouraged to report injuries as part of the new safety program, the report said.

The report also pointed out that the increased incentives for reporting injuries in the safety program might have had “an unintended adverse effect on employee accountability, as demonstrated by the reduced application of discipline for safety violations.”

Jed Dodd, a union official who represents Amtrak’s maintenance of way employees, criticized the railroad’s management for what he said were policies that deter employees from reporting close calls. He said employees fear discipline for reporting safety issues they may have been involved with. “There’s really an incentive not to be truthful,” Mr. Dodd said. “If you’re truthful, you get fired.”

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An Amtrak train struck a piece of construction equipment south of Philadelphia, causing it to derail. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Joseph Boardman,Amtrak’s president and chief executive, disputed Mr. Dodd’s assertions and said the railroad’s safety program has faced resistance from some unions. “It is safe to ride Amtrak,” Mr. Boardman said.

But Mr. Boardman said Amtrak would redouble its efforts to improve employee safety, saying management and unions had to work together to “refocus ourselves.”

“Something different has to go on here,” Mr. Boardman said. “We cannot lose lives like this. People should expect to be able to go home at night with all their fingers and toes—and actually go home.”

—Peter Grant and Ted Mann contributed to this article.

Write to Scott Calvert at scott.calvert@wsj.com and Peter Grant at peter.grant@wsj.com