Federal investigators probing the death of a CSX employee last month at the Seagirt Marine Terminal in Southeast Baltimore said Tuesday the conductor trainee had lost his footing while “shoving” the railcars around a curve.
In a preliminary report on the trainee’s June 26 death, the National Transportation Safety Board said the rail worker was on the left side of the lead rail car controlling the shove — the act of pushing rail cars or a train from the rear with another locomotive — by communicating with crews behind the train via handheld radio with one foot on a step and another foot on the car’s platform.
The trainee lost his footing when the rail car slowed down for a stop, falling onto the tracks before he was struck by the train, the NTSB found after reviewing surveillance footage and interviewing witnesses.
