Conrail Testing New Safety Rule

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Conrail is testing a safety rule designed to reduce the likelihood of train collisions similar to one that killed two people in Williams County in January.

Upon observing control signals along the tracks, train engineers operating on Conrail's Dearborn Division have been required since March 15 to make a radio announcement of their location, direction, and the signal indication.

The practice, known as signal-calling, already is in systemwide use on the CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern railroads. Those companies since mid-1997 have owned Conrail jointly and have federal approval to integrate Conrail's routes into their respective systems.

The Dearborn Division includes tracks running from Erie, Pa., through Toledo to Chicago and connecting routes in northern Indiana and Michigan.

Robert Libkind, a spokesman at Conrail's Philadelphia headquarters, said the fatal collision east of Bryan in January was a factor in introducing signal-calling to the division.

Roger Bell, 57, of Oregon, and Raymond Corell, 52, of Angola, Ind., were killed when the westbound Conrail train they were operating slammed into the rear of a train that was traveling on the same track ahead of theirs. Conditions were foggy at the time.

The train ahead reportedly had slowed because of other trains ahead. Its crew was not injured, and neither was the crew of a third train that was struck by the derailing wreckage.

A National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the accident's cause is still going on.

Libkind said that making signal-calling a permanent rule on the Dearborn Division will be up to Norfolk Southern, which will be taking over the division's tracks.