Union Pacific continues to see safety success following North Platte unit’s improvement

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor
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Union Pacific's North Platte Service Unit, which includes about 900 miles of track across Nebraska and parts of Wyoming, Colorado and Kansas, improved employee safety in 2015. The service unit's reportable employee injury rate improved 32 percent from 1.33 in 2014 to 0.91 in 2015, demonstrating progress toward achieving zero employee injuries.

 

“Employees have committed to safety as our No. 1 priority,” said Tony Orr, North Platte Service Unit service unit superintendent. “They are dedicated to working safely, keeping their peers safe and educating their communities how to behave safely around railroad tracks.”

In addition to improving employee safety, the North Platte Service Unit also tied its previous records in two other areas of safety: railroad crossing incidents, which demonstrate the public’s understanding of safe driving around railroad tracks and customer safety, which includes derailments along mainline and yard tracks. Both achievements help keep the public safe and are testaments to several key service unit initiatives: using data to direct safety activities and infrastructure investments, educational outreach to industries such as grain companies to educate them about safe driving on rural crossings and strong relationships between the Union Pacific police department’s special agents and local community law enforcement agencies.

Union Pacific employees set a systemwide all-time reportable personal injury rate record in 2015, improving 11 percent from 2014 to 0.87, making Union Pacific the safest Class 1 railroad in the United States, according to data reported by the Federal Railroad Administration.

 

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