A whistleblower lawsuit has shown in jarring detail — through several recorded conversations — how BNSF Railways, one of the nation’s largest freight haulers, deliberated skimped on safety concerns. While this type of story is not necessarily new in the annals of large transportation companies, recent events have shown the deadly consequences of rail safety.
In 2022, according to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), there were at least 1,164 derailments in the U.S. Admittedly most of them were not on the scale of those like East Palestine OH. Many barely registered in local media, let alone garner national attention.
Shortly after the East Palestine disaster, a BNSF train derailed in southwestern Minnesota, resulting in the evacuation of residents of the small town of Raymond.
All this makes the BNSF lawsuit all the more un-nerving.
In a case that stretches back to 2015, former BNSF track inspector Don Sanders filed a federal lawsuit against company for retaliation after he was fired for reporting “too many defects”.
A jury in found BNSF liable and ordered a $9.4 million award which was lowered to $2.1 million.
The recordings made by Sanders, which have recently been released, detail a culture of corner-cutting in an effort to prevent what in the r.r. business is known as a “slow order”, where track speeds are decreased due to track defects. In an industry where speed and efficiency are pretty much sacrosanct, especially with the over-use of longer and longer train...
Although on appeal the court distinguished that there was new information in the claim, the court ultimately found the new information was not material, nor was it plead with particularity. The U....