REVELSTOKE

WORKPLACE HEALTH & SAFETY COMMITTEE

MINUTES – December 9, 2004

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:

Management: Stan Bell Fops Service Area Manager 250-837-8219 (Co-Chairman)

Brad Riches ATMS 250-837-8236

Doug Cassell S&C Manager 250-837-8212

Union Rep: Bob Gardali Conductor-TCRC 250-837-8225 (Co-Chairman)

Paul Bede L/E-TCRC 250-837-8225

Kent Jones B&S Rev 250-837-8227

Jody Grant ES TMF Glacier 250-837-8289

Phil Parr S&C Mtnr-Glacier 250-837-8206

Held: December 9, 2004, Revelstoke, B.C.

Co-Chairman: Bob Gardali

Members in Attendance:

Management: S. Bell, B. Riches

Union Reps: B. Gardali (TCRC), P. Bede (TCRC), J. Grant (BMWE),

Guests: D. Harder, J. Huxtable

Meeting called to order 0915. Minutes of October 14^th meeting read and adopted.

SAFETY ACTION PLANS

Site Inspection – Dec 1^st –

The Workplace Committee drove to Glacier to inspect the spare SBU and batteries in the water shed. Everything appeared to be in order. It was noted that we have no way of determining if the SBU has been used. Perhaps some kind of sheet that RTEs could sign and date when an SBU is changed out should be made available at this location. The # of the SBU at Glacier was noted for the records as 87908.We also inspected the east end of the Glacier yard. There is already a substantial amount of snow. We noted the presence of switch brooms and shovels in the required locations.........As it was still early enough in the day we drove to Three mile crossing on the Shuswap sub. A Shuswap conductor had reported snow has been accumulating and he felt walking conditions were hazardous when he had occasion to change off recently at this location. We had some problems at this location last winter. While we felt it wasn't too bad yet, we feel it should be graded as needed. It will most likely require grading at the next snowfall. We did have an RTE submit a Midas report when he sustained a slip at this location last winter.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Item 0408-01: B. Gardali inquired the state of tunnel cleaning (Macdonald)

Action (0411) T. Marinier to advise dates to Committee. Jody Grant advised committee some cleaning is in progress. Monitor MOTION TO CARRY

Item 0410-01: B Riches reported recent incident involving miscommunication with MYPM / RTC when he was inspecting a track.

Action (0411) Brad has discussed with Yard Manager T Litowsky. MOTION TO DELETE

Item 0410-02: Paul reported that Mount 7 taxi drivers are getting on units to deliver papers to employees instead of waiting in their cabs.

Action (0411) Troy Litowsky has spoken with Mount 7 Taxi. MOTION TO DELETE

CORRESPONDENCE & BUSINESS ARISING

Item 0412-01:

As you are aware I have been very concerned about the sanitary conditions on the locomotive. There are two parts to my concern,

1) I consider the locomotive cabs as eating areas as they contain a fridge and a hot plate and there is no other area provided to consume food during long trips, some up to 12 hours. In my experience the standard the shop staff clean by is very low, for example at Golden I have yet to see a member of the shop staff voluntarily spray any cleaning product on the engineers’ desk or the conductors for that matter. These are the only places provided for food consumption.

2) I consider the toilet facilities as another area of concern as they are cleaned only where shop staff are available and are then sent on their merry way. As far as the washroom goes, on Northbound loads at Golden the shop staff don’t even open the door to the washroom, so how could they clean them? I do not believe it would take many inspections to see that this system is not providing an adequate sanitary environment

.

Up to this time we have been provided with whatever comes in a crew pack (wet nap and hand cleaner) and sometimes when we are lucky enough to find someone in the station some baby wipes. Concerned employees have been bringing cleaning supplies from home a lot of the time in small unmarked bottles. This causes a hazard in itself as who knows what caustic substances are in these cleaners. In the event an employee is inadvertently sprayed with one there is no MSDS or any timely way of assuring the contents of these products. What I would like to see is our employer provide us with onboard cleaning supplies such as a cleaning (disinfectant) solution and paper towels. I think they would go a long way toward maintaining a proper environment on the locomotive.

I have included with this some exerpts from the Canada Labour Code, although I could find nothing specific to this issue the intent of anything I read seemed to say that employers are responsible to provide and maintain clean eating and restroom facilities.

125. (1) Without restricting the generality of section 124, every employer shall, in respect of every work place controlled by the employer and, in respect of every work activity carried out by an employee in a work place that is not controlled by the employer, to the extent that the employer controls the activity,

(i) provide prescribed sanitary and personal facilities

9.2 (1) Every employer shall maintain each personal service room and food preparation area used by employees in a clean and sanitary condition.

(2) Personal service rooms and food preparation areas shall be so used by employees that the rooms or areas will remain as clean and in such a sanitary condition as is possible

9.37 All equipment and utensils that come into contact with food shall be

(a) designed to be easily cleaned;

(b) smooth, free from cracks, crevices, pitting or unnecessary indentations; and

(c) cleaned to maintain their surfaces in a sanitary condition.

Will Hayman

Locomotive Engineer

Revelstoke

Action (4011): Daron H will contact Kevin Sholes, Safety Advisor to determine if this is a system wide concern and if it has been elevated to the Policy Committee. C. Koutroumanos to provide comment.

INCIDENT REVIEW

Incident Location Cause Prev. Measures

Walking in hallway, door opened unexpectedly, contacted foot	MIR FOPS	Field Bunkhse 04.10.16 0210	No window in door – unable to determine if person in area	Investigating installing windows in fire doors.
Walking downstairs with backpack, felt pain in back	LTI FOPS	Kamloops Bnk 04.10.16 1105	Overexertion to back with heavy backpack on	Investigating
Stepping backward, foot contacted edge of pothole, sharp pain to knee	MIR FOPS	Golden Yard 04.10.26 0920	Did not ensure safe footing	Discuss with employee
Train contacted trespassers foul of track	OTH FOPS	M.40.60 Shu 04.10.28 0805	Trespassers foul of track	RCMP / CP Police investigating
Sprain to right index finger while entraining	MIR FOPS	M.97.8 Mtn 04.11.04	Hand gripped slipped while entraining, overexerted	Injury Review Report with employee
Run Thru Switch	NON FRA	Golden Yard 04.11.09 0215	Switch not lined for intended movement	Informal investigation with crew
Derailed car	NON FRA	Noranda Spur 04.11.14 1042	Defective Handbrake	Repaired
Train struck trespasser Foul of track	OTH FOPS	M.64.6 Shu 04.11.17 2210	Trespasser foul of track	RCMP / CP Police investigating
Yard movement contacted light engine	NON FRA	Golden Yard 04.11.20 1000	Failure to have crew member on leading end of movement	Informal investigation with crew
Operating lever of switch sprung up and contacted left knee	MIR FOPS	M.127.2 Shu 04.11.21 1455	Defective Switch	Switch reported for repair (no defects found)
Taking off handbrake, dawg sprung free pinching finger	MIR FOPS	M.35.0 Mtn 04.12.02	Failure to ensure fingers were clear of pinch point area	Injury Review Report with crew

SAFETY HAZARD REPORTS (Incomplete)

SHR0212-03: MU cables laying around on the ground at Ducks, Chase and Squilax. Also requested for Greely &

Moberly.

Action (0412) Item brought back to table account unsure of status of installation of brackets at various locations.

Complete: Ducks – Chase – Squilax

Jody Grant will install at Greely and look at options for Moberly. MOTION TO CARRY

SHR0310-07: Issue with VRU – being rested for duty

Action (0412) Issue has been elevated to Policy Committee. Bob indicated to carry in minutes to track.

Daron will check with Sergio to check status. MOTION TO CARRY

SHR0401-07: White out conditions – being brought into slide path after red form being issued.

(Action 0412) Bob & Paul attended meeting with Parks & Highways to discuss avalanche preparedness as it relates to the railway. RTC B. McAstocker was also in attendance. A formal plan is being developed in conjunction with Parks. MOTION TO CARRY

SHR0403-01: Employee parking lot Victoria Road – slip, trip hazard, large pooling of water.

Action (0412) Tim Marinier indicated some work could be undertaken with installation of a drainage pipe/catch basin. Committee would still like to see above recommendations completed. Tim indicated this project is on the E/S agenda, time and manpower permitting. MOTION TO CARRY

SHR0404-07: Kenwood radios are not working – trainee’s radio could not be heard one car length away – would not transmit.

Action (0412) Radios are being re-programmed and new antennas installed by S&C personnel. TK-280 is in its final production run - new portable radios are being tested, including a new Motorola. MOTION TO CARRY

SHR0404-08: Called for 0250 and waited over an hour for train. Better calls or a rest area in station.

Action (0412) Some discussion has taken place with regard to setting up a rest area in station. Pursue as part of Fatigue Management Plans. MOTION TO CARRY

SHR0410-01: Signal 15D indicated medium to clear for at least 3 minutes – then dropped. RTC indicated he never requested medium to clear. Derail was in the non-derail position.

Action (0410) On the afternoon of this occurrence ( 17:10 ) the S&C Maintainers from Golden and Field were dispatched to investigate,  also arrangements were made to have Mr. Rob Dunn the Safety Assurance Supervisor   ( SAS ) from Calgary assist in this investigation.  Once all were on site duplicating what was reported by the Train Crew could not be accomplished.  Testing the integrity of the signal system found that the 10 conductor number 14 cable connecting the CTC bungalow to signal 15D was bad.  The testing of this cable was done with a Megger BMD1.  All the conductors were tested to ground and all had an infinite reading. Testing continued checking the insulating value of each conductor to each other.  The wire supplying 10 volts to signal 15D proved to have a very poor insulating value to the others, between 16 and 50 ohms.  To verify these readings another Megger was use and the same readings were seen.  A new cable was then connected and tested to confirm proper connection.     My verbal report  on Thrusday indicated that a bad underground cable could have caused the signal to be green without the RTC having had requested it.  The data from the office and field logs showed that the RTC did not request a signal nor was a green aspect displayed at signal 15D. 

I meet with Mr. Roger Essery and Mr. Rod Flewin at 0830 on Monday ( Oct. 04th ) at Field and we continued to investigate. Given the information we had gathered and form the reports I had received from Mr. Dunn, Mr. Flewin, and the S&C Support Desk we could not conclusively prove that the bad order underground caused the green aspect as was reported by the Train Crew. We left the site and returned at 16:20 that afternoon to continue to investigate within the same time frame as the incident occurred.

Following are our findings:

1) It was a clear sunny day, the sun was setting at about 11: 00 with respects to signal 15D.

2) Signal 15D was seen to be red over red.

3) We walked back to the point (350- 400 feet ) in advance of the signal to were the Crew reported they saw the green aspect. On route we looked back at the signal (about 250 feet in advance) what we saw was surprising. Signal 15D displayed a yellow over red aspect, the appended pictures hilite what we saw. As we moved back and forth while viewing the signal the shade of yellow varied, from our vantage point I can't say that we say a green but from the cab of a locomotive that might be possible. We determined the top aspect displayed what looked like a yellow because of the sun reflecting off the hood resulting in the reflected light mixing with the red making it appear yellow. While I was viewing the yellow over red, Mr. Roger Essery walked back to the signal and climbed the ladder to shade the signal from the sun, the signal clearly displayed red over red.

To correct this we will be installing a background on the signal (same as what is used on the high signals ) and refocusing the signal to try and improve it visibility.

Doug Cassell, Manager Signals & Communications

Action (0412) Extensive investigation & testing by S&C personnel ensured the safety at this location. Logs will be obtained from NMC as required by G. Edwards. MOTION TO DELETE

SHR0410-02: East End Chase – weed eater left all sorts of debris all over the tracks / siding – trip hazard

Action (0412) Complete. MOTION TO DELETE

SAFETY HAZARD REPORTS (New)

SHR0410-03: Targets have lost their reflectivity – Kamloops Yard (Crossovers from #1 track to Yard Lead at Buzzes Autobody)

Action (0410) R. Merritt, MOR advises Kamloops H&S committee inspected this location, cleaned the reflectors and indicated everything is OK MOTION TO DELETE

SHR0410-04: Field Bunkhouse – injury occurred when employee was entering hallway and another employee was coming in from other way, door struck employee’s foot – suggestion for windows in fire doors.

Action (0412) B. Gardali to pursue through Gary Hudon, Facilities. MOTION TO CARRY

SHR0410-05: Revelstoke Yard – trail needs to be weeded opposite #8 switch, employee parking lot

Action (0410) TMS Palasz advises they will tend to it when time permits. MOTION TO DELETE

SHR0410-06: Revelstoke Yard – 1/2 open drain cover between Victoria St & House Track – 35 paces west of west wye/House track switch closets to 4^th St.

Action (0410) TMS Palasz advises area was inspected and could not locate an open drain, perhaps someone has covered up. MOTION TO DELETE

SHR0410-07: Field Bunkhouse – walkway northside – large ballast, holes and debris north of main line.

Action (0410) TMS Sadek advises area was leveled both north & south side of track. Also created a small ditch line on the south side of the track to divert water that ran down the track to the #1 switch.

MOTION TO DELETE

SHR0410-08: Revelstoke Yard – west end Track 3 - red flag placed less than 20 ft from tailend of train – was not notified by MYMP

Action (0410) Investigation revealed there was a breakdown of communication between ES that was working in the area and the MYPM. Paul followed up with ES.

MOTION TO DELETE

SHR0411-01: Train 299 – train line too long – 1 unit on HE when releasing, main reservoir drawn down too low especially when MR is blowing down at same time – hard to recharge train at Field – not even co