An extremely unfortunate accident happened today (Monday, August 21, 2006) when a FEC conductor (Mr. Kim Rogers) was killed in an accident involving a collision with a dump truck.
Mr. Rogers was riding on the rear end of a hopper car as he was directing the engineer on a switching movement of Local 915 along a local service track in an industrial area in the Cocoa - Rockledge, FL area.
The dump truck driver approached the train on a local road within the industrial area that did not have crossing signals, just cross bucks. The truck driver decided at the last moment that he could beat the train across the track. The end car that Mr. Rogers was riding clipped the rear portion of the dump truck, directly affecting Mr. Rogers.
Of course, the dump truck driver wasn't hurt in the accident.
A totally unnecessary accident cost a man his life, simply because some dumb, stupid truck driver thought that he would play a thoughtless game of "beat the train"!
My condolences to Mr. Rogers' family.
Mr. Rogers was riding on the rear end of a hopper car as he was directing the engineer on a switching movement of Local 915 along a local service track in an industrial area in the Cocoa - Rockledge, FL area.
The dump truck driver approached the train on a local road within the industrial area that did not have crossing signals, just cross bucks. The truck driver decided at the last moment that he could beat the train across the track. The end car that Mr. Rogers was riding clipped the rear portion of the dump truck, directly affecting Mr. Rogers.
Of course, the dump truck driver wasn't hurt in the accident.
A totally unnecessary accident cost a man his life, simply because some dumb, stupid truck driver thought that he would play a thoughtless game of "beat the train"!
My condolences to Mr. Rogers' family.
