Several days before a Norfolk Southern conductor trainee was killed by a metal beam protruding from a parked railcar on the next track, workers at a U.S. Pipe facility noticed the beam was hanging off the top of the car but never told the railroad about it, federal investigators say. Video taken on Dec. 7 showed a piece of metal hanging off the top of the railcar at U.S. Pipe’s facility. At one point, a worker there even put up caution tape around the railcar because of the metal hanging off of it. But that caution tape was gone before Norfolk Southern’s crew arrived to pick up the car.
https://apnews.com/article/norfolk-southern-conductor-killed-ntsb-46507a103860b87466d3cf52e4f23606