On August 13, 2018, at 12:23 a.m., a Dallas, Garland & Northeastern Railroad, Inc. (DGNO) railroad conductor was fatally injured during a shoving (pushing) movement in Dallas, Texas. The DGNO is a subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W), a holding company that owns short line railroads throughout the United States. DGNO has a joint use agreement with Union Pacific Railroad (UP). The agreement allows the DGNO the use of UP’s Cadiz Yard, which consists of three yard tracks that are located in the downtown area of Dallas, Texas.
On August 12, the yard crew went on duty at Mockingbird Yard at 6:00 p.m. The yard crew included an engineer and a conductor. This was the home terminal for the crewmembers, and each received more than the statutory off‐duty period prior to reporting for duty. Both the engineer and the conductor were off duty for 60 hours.
We determined that the probable cause of this accident was the conductor improperly lining a switch for movement onto a track that he was occupying. Contributing to the accident was the conductor’s inattention to the train’s movement.
