THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 15, 1996 TAG: 9605150428
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
Norfolk Southern Corp. won the railroad industry's annual safety award for an unprecedented seventh time in a row.
David R. Goode, Norfolk Southern's chairman, chief executive and president, used the occasion to call on the industry to resist pressure for increased safety regulation of railroads in the wake of recent high-profile accidents.
``Now more than ever, we must work together to ensure that recent events don't cause a flood of rule-makings that will make it hard for the industry to improve and grow,'' Goode said in accepting the safety award.
Norfolk Southern won the E.H. Harriman Memorial Safety Award gold medal for 1995 as the railroad with the lowest accident ratio among the nation's biggest freight rails. Ithas won the safety award every year since 1989.
The Norfolk-based railroad had 1.5 accidents for every 200,000 hours worked by employees, well below the industry average. Norfolk Southern employs nearly 24,000 workers.
Norfolk Southern's derailment rate is less than half the industry average as well, Goode said.
``At Norfolk Southern, our safety commitment has never been greater and our standards have never been tougher,'' Goode said. ``Yet we and the industry can do better. The accidents we have seen recently are warnings that, despite our steady progress, there is work to be done.''
But that work must be done by the industry itself, Goode said.
``Increasingly, we're hearing public pressure for congressional regulation to improve safety,'' he said. ``I will always resist the notion that anyone can make us safe but ourselves.''
Railroads are the safest mode of transportation in the world and increased regulation could perhaps further endanger the public, Goode suggested. ``Expensive regulatory solutions would shift traffic to congested highways and thereby endanger public safety,'' he said.
``The railroad industry is the safest by all counts,'' Goode said. ``We made it that way because it is good for our customers, it is good for the public and it is good for our employees.''
Also at the safety awards Tuesday, a Norfolk Southern conductor was recognized for individual safety achievements. Wally F. Binner, a conductor at the railroad's Chicago terminal, received the Harold F. Hammond Award.
Hammond, a 29-year employee, is head of the railroad's safety committee and helped the Chicago terminal achieve the goal of no injuries during 1994 and 1995.
Hammond shared the award with Robert T. Lucio, track foreman with Union Pacific Railroad Co.
CSX Transportation Inc., the railroad subsidiary of Richmond-based CSX Corp., won the silver medal in the Harriman safety awards.
CSX and Norfolk Southern are the two principal railroads serving Hampton Roads.
The Harriman safety awards were established in 1913 by Mary W. Harriman in memory of her husband Edward H. Harriman, a pioneer in American railroading. by CNB