Nine months after joining the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Wayne Workman launched on one of the biggest accidents the NTSB Railroad Divisison had ever investigated, the head-on collision of a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific freight train in Chatsworth, California on September 12, 2009. The accident resulted in 25 fatalities, and numerous injuries. Workman was named Investigator in Charge.
It was Friday evening, and the traditional work week had ended. Wayne Workman was on the computer and listening to “The Blend” on satellite radio in his Ponte Vedra, Florida, home office when he received a call from Jim Southworth, Chief of the NTSB’s Railroad Division telling him about the accident.
Workman immediately contacted the NTSB’s Communication Center regarding his flight arrangements, then gathered whatever information he could on the accident from Southworth, the Internet, and television news coverage. Fifteen hours later he was at the accident site viewing the head-on, derailed, telescoped, wreckage. As Workman walked around the accident site with the members of the NTSB’s Railroad Division from the California regional office, he tried to wrap his mind around the magnitude of this latest tragedy. Workman quickly met with members of the Los Angeles fire and rescue team regarding the status of the recovery process. He later met with representatives of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Union Pacific Railroad, and Metrolink to be briefed about the accident and to provide a condensed description of an NTSB investigation. Later that day, he conducted a full discussion of the NTSB’s on-scene investigative process during an organizational meeting attended by nearly 200 people, including more than two dozen NTSB staff; federal, state and, local government representatives, and industry representatives.
More members of the NTSB's accident investigation team, including former Board Member Kitty Higgins, arrived from Washington, and Workman briefed them on the accident and the facts gathered at that point. He also met with and accompanied California’s Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and other local politicians to a press conference.
For the next nine days, the Hilton in Woodland Hills became Workman’s home and office. He led the team of investigators and party representatives as they examined tracks, inspected and tested equipment, conducted interviews, gathered necessary documents, and held daily progress meetings.
Prior to the Chatsworth accident, the only other NTSB accident Workman, had led occurred four months earlier in Newtown, Massachusetts when two trolley cars collided, claiming the life of one of the operators. However, as the cliché’ goes, railroads are “in his blood.” “My great grandfather, Oliver, grandfather, John, and father, Claude, all worked for the C & O Railroad,” Workman said. “My great grandfather and grandfather worked in the engineering department, each retiring from Big Sandy Subdivision. My father was a conductor and retired in 1989 with 42 years of service with Lexington Subdivision in Ashland, Kentucky.”
Workman did not follow in his family’s footsteps, at least not right away. His first career choice was teaching. As a graduate of the University of Kentucky with a Bachelor of Science degree in Education, Workman became a high school English Literature teacher. A former baseball player, who had played on five state championship teams and attended college on an athletic scholarship, Workman was also the youngest high school head football coach in Kentucky at the time. "I loved teaching and coaching,” Workman said. “However, when my wife and I decided to start a family, I made a financial decision to work for the railroad so my wife could stay home.”
In 1974, the teacher and coach became a railroader, 52 years after his great grandfather started, as an engineer. During his nearly 34-year career with the railroads, where he was the Director of Operating Practices at Conrail, Workman led the consolidation of operating rules after the railroad was purchased by Northern Southern Railway and CZX Transportation, choosing the best practices between the two roads. He participated in the coordination of the training and testing of all train and engine employees and developed the first computer-based training program for both contract employees and management positions.
Additionally, Workman led a team of FRA, labor and management representatives in developing new operational testing procedures, including the development of a new simulated obstruction device used for operational testing. His team also worked closely with the FRA regarding electronic hours of service reporting, making changes that were necessary for compliance. As the General Manager of Operating Practices and Train Accident Investigation and Prevention, he led a team whose responsibility was to direct the train accident prevention process across a 23-state, 40,000-mile network.
Also during his tenure as a railroader, Workman was a party representative to several NTSB investigations including: a derailment and hazardous material release in Cox Landing, West Virginia; the Howard Street Tunnel derailment in Baltimore, Maryland; an Amtrak Auto Train derailment in Crescent City, Florida; and a hazardous materials and fire derailment in Oneida, New York.
Early in the NTSB’s investigation of the Chatsworth accident, the NTSB learned that, on the day of the accident, the Mertolink engineer and the Union Pacific conductor were both using wireless electronic devices while operating their trains and they had had a history of using these devices extensively.
“These deadly distractions from wireless electronic devices in cab cars are very new in the rail industry,” Workman said. “During my time with the railroad, the major distraction on a locomotive would be unauthorized reading material and portable Citizens Band (CB) radios. Often the antennas could be seen sticking out the locomotive cab windows. The earlier versions of computers and cellular telephones were too large to carry, and the first generation of cellular telephones had limited coverage.”
On January 21st 2009, Workman led the staff presentation of the final report to the Board on the deadliest rail accident in 15 years. His wife Connie had come to Washington to observe and offer him support. As a result of the investigation, the NTSB made recommendations to the FRA to install inward facing image recorders in cab cars. The Board adopted the report in full and praised the team members for their hard work. Sixteen months after his weekend launch to Chatsworth, Workman’s work on the Metrolink/Union Pacific public hearing and investigation was done.
After the Board meeting, Workman and his bride of nearly 40 years left Washington for Richmond, Virginia to visit their son Jeff, an optometrist. And, very soon, hopefully, before he is launched again to the next investigation, they will visit their daughter Jennifer, the Director of Environmental Compliance for Orange County Schools, in Orlando, Florida.
Although Workman no longer works on the railroad, he is still a railroader and family ties to the rail industry are still strong. His brother David is a conductor and a first cousin Mark is an engineer. And, his nephews John, a locomotive engineer and Rusty, a machinist, are the Workman family’s fifth generation of railroaders.
In less than three years, Workman has proven himself to be an invaluable resource for the NTSBard. Earlier this year, he was awarded the Regional Employee Award, an award given to a regionally-based employee whose work during the past year has served as a model to other personnel and has furthered the NTSB's mission of improving transportation safety.
Workman is back in the rotation for a future rail launch. And, when the telephone rings informing him of his next launch, he will head off to work on his old stomping grounds, the railroad.