What Happened
What Happened
On September 4, 2024, about 12:11 p.m. local time, the conductor of northbound Union Pacific Railroad (UP) train MCHAL-04 was struck and killed by southbound METRA commuter train M338 at milepost (MP) 50.57 of the UP Kenosha Subdivision near Kenosha, Wisconsin. There were no other fatalities or injuries.
What We Found
What We Found
The probable cause of the accident was the conductor of Union Pacific Railroad train MCHAL-04 being struck by METRA train M338 when fouling the adjacent track for unknown reasons. Contributing to the accident was the failure of the crew of train MCHAL-04 to conduct a comprehensive job briefing that would have alerted the conductor to the risks he was facing while in the foul of the track waiting to conduct the wheel inspection. Also contributing was the failure of the engineer and student engineer of train MCHAL-04 to maintain situational awareness of the conditions outside of the locomotive, which would have enabled them to provide warning to the conductor, via the radio, of the approaching METRA train.
What We Recommended
Following the accident, UP issued an incident alert to its employees discussing the circumstances of this accident and reminding them of the applicable rules that must be adhered to in order to prevent this type of accident.
At the time of this accident, UP did not require track breach protection on the Kenosha Subdivision. Following the accident, on September 12, 2024, UP updated its system special instructions for track breach protection, which restricts trains from moving within the area, to be in effect where railroad employees are working on the ground, enabling them to safely occupy the area between the tracks on the Kenosha Subdivision.
In addition, the Switching Operations Fatality Analysis (SOFA) Working Group published an alert in June 2025 discussing the importance of comprehensive job briefings. It indicated that employees being struck by mainline trains is one of the most common findings in switching operations fatalities and that 20 percent of those involved an inadequate job briefing.
These postaccident actions affirm the importance of crews developing and maintaining situational awareness of the safety risks that surround wheel inspection operations.
