Railroad Operations Safety Expert Witness

Objective

Serve Clients and Associates by Accident – Incident Investigation and Reconstruction, Conducting DOT Regulatory Audits of Facilities, Developing and or Presenting Training Programs, Tank Car Mechanical Auditing, Assessments of Railroad Operations, Safety, including rules compliance, radio procedures, mechanical standards of 49 CFR 215, 231, and 232, air brakes tests, and blue signal protection of workmen, Technical Consulting, including Expert Witness and Assistance for Attorney Firms

Work History

Feb 2008 – Present, A Safety Specialist at a Company in Texas (Name Available upon Request)

Liaison with government agencies and corporate counsel.

Classify hazardous materials to ensure regulatory compliance.

Research and monitor laws and regulations affecting the company’s distribution safety and logistics efforts.

Ensure the safe, compliant and risk free distribution of company products.

Conduct transportation compliance audits of company facilities.

Interact with federal and state agencies as well as enforcement personnel.

Maintain, manage and provide as needed transportation regulatory compliance training.

Provide classification determination and maintain hazardous and non-hazardous material classifications, all modes, within the company’s data base (SAP) and MSDS system.

Work with various federal and international agencies to ensure full compliance with applicable regulations including hazardous materials registration with DOT, registration of company products with MARPOL, and assignment of current or as required request new STCC.

Seek opportunities to improve transportation costs, reduce risk and prepare corrective action plans.

Plan, prioritize, coordinate, and communicate activities related to the safe distribution of company products.

Oct 2002 – Present Consultant, Partner Private Consulting Firm Las Vegas, NV
Accident Investigation, Expert Testimony, DOT Hazardous Materials Regulatory Specialist, Trainer and Auditor, Liaison with Government Agencies, Rail Car Fleet Auditing and Inspections, Rail Operations Specialist, Distribution Safety – Regulatory Contractor – APR Consulting, Inc.

Conducted accident investigation and reconstruction of an injury accident in a carrier train yard where the yardmaster failed to follow SOPs and compliance with the operating and safety rules, which included a train air brake test and proper radio procedures 49 CFR 220 and testified in U.S. District Court of my findings

Testified in Deposition – Rail operating, safety rules, and mechanical inspection of freight cars – Brakeman injured when he moved a coupler that did not comply with the Safety Appliance and Power Brake law Parts 231 and 232 of 49 CFR and Part 215 of 49 CFR

Testified in Deposition – Railroad Operating and safety rules, where Brakeman was injured when he tripped over a freight car brake shoe that was buried under the snow between tracks in a carrier train yard which was a violation of carrier operating and safety rules and 49 CFR 217

Served as an expert on a Railroad Commodity Liability Case where a carrier failed to properly place a tank car for unloading and instead placed the wrong car that was subsequently partially unloaded in a storage tank, damaging the entire contents

Served as technical consultant on trespass fatality where a youth of tender years was struck and killed by a passing train – train yard was in a residential area and not protected by adequate fencing or security

Served as a technical consultant on an asbestos case where a railroad worker suffered from exposure to airborne asbestos

Served as a technical consultant on a railroad crossing case where a driver was struck on a railroad crossing and injured by an oncoming train

Served as a technical consultant on a toxic tort case where two carrier employees were injured when a railroad tank car leaked in a train yard, was handled without shipping papers, was not properly inspected, and where the carrier failed to take action to protect their employees, causing injury to two yardmasters

Served as an expert on FELA railroad injury cases

Wrote Technical Reports of findings

Evaluated cases for attorney firms

Conducted Accident and Incident Reconstructions

Recommended approach to discovery and questions for depositions

Served as Regulations Consultant to Automobile Manufacturer

Ecospeakers – San Jose, CA

Who’s Who in Business and Finance

Who’s in the Safety Profession

Who’s Who in the United States

Who’s Who in the World

Jul 2001 – Oct 2002 Hazardous Materials Safety Specialist US DOT – Federal Railroad Administration
Vancouver, WA
Managed a regional hazardous material transportation program for 8 northwestern states, served as regional expert in hazardous materials matters, developed training seminars for regional staff of federal and state inspectors, managed a training budget, presented programs and coordinated operations with National Staff Director, State Directors, Regional Administrators, Staff Director, Transport Canada and inspectors, reviewed technical reports on inspections, audits, investigations, and hazardous materials incidents, conducted liaison with senior management in railroad, chemical, freight car building and component manufacturing industries, wrote annual regional inspection plan and assisted inspectors in developing goals and objectives consistent with the national and regional plans, evaluated job performance of inspectors, and assisted other federal, state and local governments to understand the transportation of hazardous materials through the region and worked cooperatively to enhance safety and health of workers and the public, assigned or investigated citizen, labor or Congressional Complaints, served as a liaison with labor representatives, and as a media spokesperson

Planned Interagency Inspections and Strike Force Assessments for Port Hazardous Materials and Security issues

Participated on Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City on rail hazmat safety and security operations

Assisted Inspectors by reviewing recommendations to Chief Counsel for civil prosecution

Assisted Inspectors in organizing conducting Transborder Inspections with local, state, provincial, and government inspectors at Canadian Border

Assisted in Cross Training of other federal inspectors in hazardous materials disciplines, including inspectors from other agencies, such as FAA, FMCSA, OIG, FBI ODOT, OSHA, EPA, Customs, US Coast Guard, etc.

Served as Regional Civil Rights and EEO Counselor

Planned and conducted inspections and a public meeting on a high level security/safety movement of 4.6 million pounds of explosives cooperatively with Oregon & Washington Fire Marshall, Fire Chiefs, ATF, FMCSA, WUTC, Labor & Industries, planners and emergency managers, government agencies, carriers, and contractors – both pre and post 911, which was directly involved the Secretary of Transportation and other senior administration officials

Selected to serve as an Associate to Oregon Federal Executive Board (OFEB) worked on interagency issues, such as energy conservation, water usage and drought issues, personnel management

Selected to serve as a Loaned Executive to the Combined Federal Campaign working with other government agencies on fund raising for the Combined Federal Campaign

Selected for Executive Potential Program (EPP) of Leadership with the Graduate School of Management for the U.S. Department of Agriculture

Observed and monitored train, engine, yard, shop, locomotive, and dispatcher operations for compliance with the carrier operating and safety rules, including radio procedures, carrier efficiency testing of employees for compliance, Blue Signal Protection for workmen, train air brake testing, and freight car inspection

Apr 1993 – Jul 2001 Hazardous Materials Safety Inspector USDOT- Federal Railroad Administration
Vancouver, WA

Conducted inspections in hazardous materials, operating practices, and motive power and equipment disciplines, chemical, railroad, car repair, and testing companies, included proper shipping descriptions of hazmat on paper work, proper procedures for loading/unloading tank cars, inspection of freight cars, especially for compliance with the safety appliance and freight car safety standards, tank and valve retesting, marking, placarding, stenciling, accident investigation, hazmat incident investigation, training carrier, chemical industry, labor and public groups in transportation hazmat safety, presented training seminars, symposia and conferences, working cooperatively with other government agencies to conduct inspections of hazardous materials

Served as Agency Liaison, Spokesperson, and Lead Investigator at High Media Visibility Leaking Propane Tank car in Billings, Montana by working with industry and carrier experts to transfer the liquefied petroleum gas and transport the defective tank car

Received Superior Achievement Award for Action to Prevent Injury at a Chemical Incident

Conducted Accident Investigation as Inspector In Charge at High Media Visibility Accidents – Broken rail – caused major train accident with chemical release and resulting fire – interviewed witnesses for compliance with federal regulations and carrier operating and safety rules, and managed a team of inspectors

Conducted Accident Investigation reconstruction of burned off journal, which caused a major train accident and where chemical tank cars derailed into a river

Conducted Accident Investigation/reconstruction of train derailment where high speed container-intermodal train derailed at a broken rail because the train dispatcher failed to comply with the operating rules that required the track ahead be inspected before allowing a train to pass, especially at a high rate of speed

Conducted Accident Investigation/reconstruction of train derailment of head on collision in dark territory where train failed to comply with the operating and safety rules where the train should have been able to stop within one half the range of vision

Conducted Accident Investigation of train derailment where a box car of plywood was improperly loaded and caused a major train accident

Conducted train ride observations of carrier operating and safety rules compliance, including compliance with 49 CFR 217, 49 CFR 232, 49 CFR 231 and 49 CFR 215, and 49 CFR 220 Railroad Operating Rules

Conducted a locomotive inspection upon request of regional administrator regarding a union complaint in absence of MP&E Specialist and Inspector

Received an Award for my action and follow up with senior carrier management to provide for improved inspections and training at large locomotive shop facilities, as a result of my investigation

Planned and conducted a Multi-Agency Task Force Assessment with other local, state, federal agencies and Transport Canada on hazmat safety and security on west coast ports

Received an award for the planning of the joint agency initiative

Served as Acting Regional Administrator and received an award for handling of the national mayors’ conference held in Boise, ID

Developed statistics and identified a major safety flaw in vertical restraint couplers in the U.S., which included private rail car shop inspections in Wyoming and California and received an award

Served as Acting Hazardous Materials Staff Director during the absence of the hazmat specialists at headquarters, where I acted as advisor to Office of Chief Counsel on hazmat issues, liaison with chemical industry, carriers, NTSB etc.

Served in Accident Reports Section at headquarters, where I worked with accident specialists on national accidents

Served in Hazardous Materials Section at headquarters to assist hazardous materials specialists with special projects

Conducted Crossing Accident Investigations and Operation Life Saver Presentations to School Bus Drivers, Commercial vehicle drivers, driver education classes, and school children from primary to high school on crossing and trespasser safety issues and received an award

Certified as an Operation Life Saver Presenter

Participated with a national inspection and data collection on the mechanical and operating concerns with intermodal safety for future regulations and received an award

Participated with a national team to develop a training program for hazardous materials inspectors and received an award

Assisted headquarters staff in developing an advanced hazardous materials training program for inspectors

Served as an Associate to the Oregon Federal Executive Board

Served as a Loaned Executive and Motivational Speaker and Fund Raiser for the Combined Federal Campaign with United Way where federal workers raised $1.6M for charity, a record in giving (2001) immediately following the 911 charitable contributions

Served as a Civil Rights and EEO Counselor for an 8 state region

Nov 1991 – Apr 1993 Hazardous Materials Inspector USDOT-Federal Railroad Administration
Fort Worth, TX

Conducted inspections of chemical facilities, carriers, freight car builders, valve and tank testing operations, accident and hazmat incident investigation, trained Texas Railroad Commission Inspectors and DOT/FRA Inspectors, conducted inspections at intermodal terminals and UPS Regional Centers, conducted training programs for the United Transportation Union (UTU), Oil refineries, and chemical plants in a five state region, and wrote recommendations for civil prosecution

Conducted High Visibility Investigation of Defective tank car barrels and wrote reports which resulted in the issuance of EO-16 and EO-17

Conducted Presentations in hazardous materials transportation safety, loading and unloading of tank cars at the annual plant managers meeting at Delta Chemicals in Longview, TX

Identified Defective Vertical Restraint Couplers in hazardous materials service after my initial work had resulted in the Association of American Railroads (AAR) placing a special notice in their Field Manual and improvements to the safety of thousands of railroad tank cars

Conducted carrier operating and safety rule observations and compliance with 49 CFR 231, 232, 215, 221, 218, and 220

Apr 1989 – Nov 1991 Safety Consultant Robertson Transportation Services Charleston, WV

Served as an expert witness, safety consultant and accident investor for FELA issues, and served as railroad safety consultant to a major chemical company on chemical transportation safety issues with class I railroads

Traveled to Peoples Republic of China with an international safety and health delegation, lecturing in universities, at government professional associations, and industries throughout China (1989)

Developed a chemical safety risk management program for a chemical company to audit class I railroads which Union Carbide Corporation trade marked as Safe Rail, and conducted meetings with corporate senior management of carriers and inspections of system programs, followed by field inspections to ensure compliance and wrote action plans

Conducted field accident investigation of a wrongful death, was deposed by defendant and matter settled out of court

Conducted fatality investigation of an accident at carrier mechanical shop where a brakeman on an industrial crane fell from under the wheels and was fatality injured — conducted inspections of the track structure, mechanical condition of the crane and idler car, including radio procedures — the radios were not tested prior to duty and were know to be defective

Conducted a fatality investigation and reconstruction where a load of lumber that was improperly secured and loaded failed and struck the engineer’s compartment of an oncoming train, decapitating the engineer

Conducted an assessment of a signal failure as reported by a train crew who passed a stop signal in violation of carrier operating rules

Assisted in founding a minority enterprise, Brothers Coal Company, where I served in development of contracts and as their science advisor on coal gasification technology

Jun 1980 – Apr 1989 Hazardous Materials Inspector, USDOT-Federal Railroad Administration
Charleston, WV

Conducted hazardous materials inspections and investigations of chemical facilities, carriers, freight car repair shops and testing facilities for safety devices, crossing, death, and train accident investigations, hazardous materials incident investigations, operating practices and motive power and equipment inspections and investigations, audits and assessments of passenger and freight railroads

Conducted Annual Tank Car Survey in Pennsylvania and West Virginia for identifying mechanical defects in DOT specification tank cars and conducted joint training with rail carriers of chemical operators

Developed and presented the first chemical industry/railway safety symposium on Campus of West Virginia State, which was the precursor to the Bureau of Explosives Seminars (1985)

Assisted Marshall University in several national safety conferences as a planner, speaker and exhibitor on railroad safety issues

Identified serious national safety concern with the mechanical stability of vertical restraint couplers which were equipped with a welded top shelf, and initiated a follow up which resulted in the AAR placing a reference in their Field Manual to replace the welded couplers (1985)

Speaker at the First International Conference of the Mechanical Training Officers Association in Louisville, KY (1987) on hazard communication to mechanical department employees who work on tank cars, containing hazardous materials

Interviewed by ABC Wide World News Tonight in a three part series on taking initiatives in environmental safety and health and developing a national hazardous materials safety symposium in 27 days

Identified a serious operational and training concern with a major chemical company and assisted them in developing a corporate communication and quality program to deal with the issues

Participated on system safety audits of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (ATK) on operating practices and dispatcher auditing

Conducted a fatality investigation of a brakeman who was improperly positioned on a hopper car and fell to his death – discovered in the accident reconstruction that the radio that he was using did not work properly, which if it were working as it was intended, could have saved his life

Conducted an investigation of a head-on collision, which resulted from a failure of the train and engine crew to comply with the carrier operating rules and radio procedures

Conducted an investigation and reconstruction of a rear end train collision where the following train struck a standing train, after passing a stop signal and severely injured the conductor in the standing train’s caboose – the train and engine crew violated the carrier’s operating and safety rules when it failed to stop before striking the caboose in the track ahead

Conducted an investigation of a broken rail that caused the derailment of tank cars containing hazardous chemicals, puncturing several and causing evacuation – the inspection of track failure to disclose the signs of an internal rail flaw

Conducted an investigation of a train accident when a loaded coal train derailed because the rail was not properly secured to track structure and because the surfacing and rail gang supervisors failed to comply with the procedures for securing track, especially in conditions of excessive temperature

Served as Team Leader on the Burlington Northern Railroad Company Regional Dispatchers Audit after a series of fatal collisions

Served as an operating practices auditor on the Southeastern Transportation Authority (SEPTA) in Philadelphia

Served as a hazardous materials auditor on the Consolidated Rail Corporation (CONRAIL) system safety audit (1987)

Served as a hazardous materials auditor on the Norfolk & Western Railway N&W) system safety assessment (1987)

Served as an Auditor for the National Train Dispatchers Assessment where I observed carrier operating and safety rules and compliance with radio procedures, blue signal protection of workmen, train air brake tests, rear end marking devices, and 49 CFR 217, 220, 221, 215, 231, 218, and 213

Served as an Auditor of mechanical survey of maintenance of way freight cars on the CSX Transportation, Inc.

Received Commendation from Governor Arch Moore of West Virginia for bringing a national chemical safety conference to the state

Trained State Inspectors from Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia in operating practices, motive power and equipment and hazardous materials safety

Dec 1970 – May 1980 Telegrapher/Agent/Dispatcher, Canadian Pacific Ltd., Saint John, NB Canada

Served as Telegrapher/Agent, acting as a liaison for dispatcher with train, maintenance of way, and engine crews, operating freight and passenger stations, collecting revenues, managing land and buildings, preparing accounting reports, ordering freight cars, working with shippers to weigh bill their freight and route it properly to destination, order freight cars for loading, preparing switching instructions for crews, managing clerical staff, and preparing payroll

Received a Commendation from H.P. Lee, Superintendent of Transportation for acts at a fire which resulted in removal of several loaded freight cars from a burning plant

Managed high volume railroad freight stations at seaport terminal and large newsprint paper operations

Qualified on Maine Central Railroad Operations for working joint agency in Hermon, Maine

Prepared export papers as Forwarding Agent for small shippers of logs to Quebec

Worked as Bridges & Buildings Painter before transitioning to CP Rail

Maintained proper radio procedures as a train dispatcher and as a Agent-Telegrapher – communicating with trains

Education

Jun 1980 – Oct 2002, Transportation Safety Institute (TSI), Oklahoma City, OK

Hazardous Materials Safety at entry, advanced, and re-currency

Freight Car Safety Standards

Accident Investigation

Operating Practices

Associate Faculty

Mar 1985 – Dec 1986, Marshall University, Huntington, WV

M.S. Safety Management, With concentration in hazardous materials transportation,  GPA: 3.69

Who’s Who in American’s Universities & Colleges 1986-87

Aug 1980 – May 1982, West Virginia State, Institute, WV

B.S. in Business Administration, With concentrations in management and marketing, GPA: 3.10, Dean’s List

Jan 1975 – May 1980, University of Maine, Orono, ME

Majoring in Business Administration, Concentrations in management and marketing, GPA: 2.98,
Dean’s List

Skills

Hazardous Materials Specialist
Accident Investigator – Reconstruction
Trainer
Computer Literate
FELA Expert Witness
Tank Car Mechanical Audits and Maintenance
Liaison with Government Agencies
Adjunct Faculty at Marshall University College of Education
Adjunct Faculty at Transportation Safety Institute

References

Available on request