Were US Rail Workers Instructed to Bypass Railcar Safety Inspections?

The Guardian reported Friday it obtained leaked audio that revealed US rail workers were told to skip critical safety inspections.

A manager for one of the country’s largest rail companies reportedly told a former carman to “stop tagging railcars for broken bearings,” according to the outlet.

Leaked audio reveals US rail workers were told to skip inspections as Ohio crash prompts scrutiny to industry | Ohio train derailment https://t.co/b8BXhuW6Ye

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The report comes in light of an NTSB preliminary report that suggested a wheel bearing failure caused the East Palestine train derailment.

The NTSB report stated:

Train 32N passed three HBD systems on its trip before the derailment. At MP 79.9, the suspect bearing from the 23rd car had a recorded temperature of 38°F above ambient temperature. When train 32N passed the next HBD, at MP 69.01, the bearing’s recorded temperature was 103°F above ambient. The third HBD, at MP 49.81, recorded the suspect bearing’s temperature at 253°F above ambient.

Read the full NTSB report in these screenshots:

According to a NTSB press release, investigators think the derailment was caused by a wheel bearing failure.

NTSB investigators have identified and examined the rail car that initiated the derailment. Surveillance video from a residence showed what appears to be a wheel bearing in the final stage of overheat failure moments before the derailment. The wheelset from the suspected railcar has been collected as evidence for metallurgical examination. The suspected overheated wheel bearing has been collected and will be examined by engineers from the NTSB Materials Laboratory in Washington, D.C.

From The Guardian:

In late 2016, Stephanie Griffin, a former Union Pacific carman, went to her manager with concerns that she was getting pushback for tagging – or reporting for repair – railcars. Her manager told her it was OK to skip inspections.

Griffin asked if the manager could put that in writing. “That’s weird,” said the manager. “We have 56 other people who are not bad-ordering stuff out there. You’re definitely not going to get in trouble for it.”

Griffin said: “He refused to bad-order [mark for repair] cars for bad wheel bearings. My boss took issue with it because it increased our dwell time. When that happened, corporate offices would start berating management to release the cars.”

Dwell time refers to the time a train spends at a scheduled stop without moving. “It’s very obvious that management is not concerned with public safety, and only concerned with making their numbers look good,” Griffin said.

Griffin also claimed she and other workers did not receive any formal training to inspect and repair railcars, and were left to learn from an older worker and figure the rest out from American Association of Railroads and Federal Railroad Administration handbooks. Griffin suggested all major railroad carriers operate similarly.

As part of her job at the railyard, Griffin was to inspect all railcars on inbound journeys for defects and put a tag on them to send the cars to the railroad yard repair shop. On outbound journeys, workers were supposed to check the cars’ air brakes and make a final inspection. But, she said, management, at the behest of corporate, undermined workers’ effectiveness on the job.

She said: “The regulation at the time stated that a wheel bearing was bad when it had ‘visible seepage’. But that was very vague, and the bosses used that vagueness to their advantage. For me, it was whenever oil was visible on the bearing. For my bosses, they wanted actual droplets and proof it would leak on the ground.

“Most railroad workers are fighting against an entire system that only exists as a money-making apparatus to the wealthy. Those trains run through our towns, but they do not run next to rich folks’ homes, nor next to our politicians’ homes. This is a top-down problem.”

The reported leaked audio is another sign that the railroad industry needs a massive overhaul.

In letters obtained by CNBC, union representative Jonathon Long said the current business model was “foisted upon the railroad industry by Wall Street ‘activist investors’ and hedge funds starting around 2015.”

East Palestine Derailment Cleanup Crew Becoming Sick From Toxic Environment

Read the full letter below: