​On December 23, 2020, about 6:55 a.m. local time, the conductor of Kansas City Southern Railway Company train L-CO302-22 was struck and fatally injured by the train in the Tupelo Rail Yard in Tupelo, Mississippi. The conductor was performing switching operations, directing a shoving movement from the end of the lead railcar. When the engineer slowed the train in anticipation of coupling a set of railcars, the conductor fell from his position and into the path of the train, where he sustained fatal injuries. 

​The probable cause of the December 23, 2020, fatality of a Kansas City Southern Railway conductor was his fall from the railcar he was riding into the path of the moving train during switching operations because of unexpected slack action experienced in his train while in an unstable position. ​​