BEAUMONT, Texas — The National Transportation Safety Board has released a preliminary report on the 2022 death of a 66-year-old conductor working with a crew moving train cars at an ExxonMobil facility in Beaumont.
Richard Garza, 66. died after being struck by a rail car just after midnight while working with a four-person crew to move 19 rail cars at the ExxonMobil Lube & Packaging Plant in Beaumont.
He and the crew he was working with were employed by PSC Group at the time according to the report.
Garza was at the end of the line of cars in radio contact with the engineer running the locomotive and "spotting" to let him know where the end of the train was positioned according to the NTSB report.
The engineer lost radio contact with Garza and moments later stopped the train according to the report.
Immediately after the train was stopped the engineer could be heard on the radio saying "what happened, what happened" and then, seconds later saying "radio check."
After he did not get a response from Garza another member of the crew was sent to check on him and found him beneath the wheels of the last rail car. He died at the scene.
The report appeared to show that Garza had crossed the tracks in front of the train leaving a company approved pathway when he was struck and killed by the train.
Since the accident the company has revised its "spotting" procedures including eliminating walking during train movements and adding some signage to alert and prevent pedestrian traffic during movements according to the report.
The report is only a preliminary report and may be corrected before a final report is released.
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This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.