Do The Locomotion

*To take the corresponding CDE quiz, visit the College of Emergency Dispatch.*

On the morning of Saturday, March 7, 2026, two locomotives and 17 cars of a Norfolk Southern train derailed near Horseshoe Curve in Logan Township, Pennsylvania (USA).¹ About a month prior to that, more than 60 cars of a Norfolk Southern train derailed in the early hours of Friday, February 6, in the same area.² Despite the size of both derailments, there were no fatalities or injuries in either case.

Generally speaking, there are fewer train accidents than ever before and when they do occur, they are nonfatal more often than not. Since 2005, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) reported that overall train accident rates are down by 40% and derailments have declined by about 46%. The only type of accidents that haven’t made marked progress in the past decade are collisions between trains and vehicles or pedestrians at railroad crossings (the FRA calls them “grade crossing incidents”). The number of those has stayed about the same from year to year, showing only the smallest improvement long-term.³

This data isn’t too different from what the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch^® (IAED^™) Data Center shows for Fire Priority Dispatch System^™ (FPDS^®) Protocol 70: Train and Rail Collision/ Derailment. From February 2023 to February 2026, among the 2.28 million calls handled across 183 fire agencies across the globe, there were only 585 cases handled using this protocol. Of those, 83.76% were DELTA-level and the remaining 16.24% were CHARLIE-level.

There are two FPDS Chief Complaint Protocols that handle train incidents— Protocol 70: Train and Rail Collision/ Derailment and Protocol 75: Train and Rail Fire. If you have a difficult time trying to decide which Chief Complaint is most appropriate for a call you’re handling, you can always reference these two Chief Complaint Selection Rules:

“If a train incident involves both a collision/derailment and a fire, use Protocol 70.”

“Train and rail collisions involving a motor vehicle or a person(s) stuck or trapped by a train should be handled on Protocol 70 to address train safety concerns.”

Gary Galasso, Medical/Fire Protocol Expert for Priority Dispatch Corp.™ (PDC™), summed it up like this: “If a train is on fire and catching other things on fire— structures, vegetation, vehicles, or even other trains—as long as it’s still on the rails, go to Protocol 75. Anything else involving trains should be handled with Protocol 70.”

“A train derailment with a fire can cover a very large scope,” added Mike Thompson, Fire Protocol, Academics, and Standards Expert for the IAED. “It’s a complex incident with many considerations and a variety of safety concerns. It’s one of the few incident types where you may have not only injuries to deal with, but rescue extrication, fire suppression, and hazardous materials as well. You will also at times have access issues and even potentially evacuation of a surrounding area to accomplish. All of this must be done as quickly as possible to try and mitigate further injury, damage, and death.”

Because the stakes are so high, it’s important that you as the Emergency Fire Dispatcher (EFD) gather as accurate information as possible and relay it to the firefighters and other first responders so that when they arrive at the scene of the emergency, they will do so with the necessary tools and resources.

Updates

Many of the other protocols were overhauled from FPDS version 7 to version 8, and the changes to Protocol 70: Train and Rail Collision/Derailment were no exception. There is an increased focus on sorting out different incident types, like vehicle struck by train, person stuck by train, and vehicle on tracks. All of these incident types have completely changed Key Question pathways, arranging the questions in a more logical order and removing other questions that weren’t relevant to the incident. The effect of these changes is shortening the questioning sequences with the goal of dispatching calls more quickly.

Stand-alone Pre-Arrival Instruction Protocol H: Medical Assessment and Treatment is now available from Protocol 70, and the reconfiguring of the Key Questions fall into line with that change. Questions regarding injury and illness are now asked earlier and regarded with higher acuity, and positive results are dispatched earlier. As with other fire situations, you will ascertain that the scene is safe enough to treat the patient before moving forward with those instructions. Protocol H includes bleeding control including tourniquet application instructions, amputation care, airway control, burn treatment, and instructions for the care of other types of medical problems that might occur during a train incident.

Speaking of Key Questions, “What is the train number?” is now a Jurisdictionally Approved Question, as designated by its purple coloring. Railroad cars are identified by two, three, or four letters and by a number up to six digits long and help identify the train and its operator when speaking with the rail operations.

Garbage/Trash/Recycle truck has been added as an example of a LARGE FUEL/FIRE LOAD, which is defined as large vehicles that can carry or contain large amounts of combustible materials which may pose additional threats during firefighting operations and require additional resources. “Garbage/Trash/ Recycle truck” now joins bus, large pull-behind camper, and motor home.

The new rule explains the presence of the new Determinant Code 70-C-3 “Stranded on train,” and when it’s most appropriate to use it: “Incidents that involve people stranded on a train due to power loss or other reasons not due to a crash or collision should be coded as 70- C-3 [Stranded on train].”

“This new call type and Determinant Code was added at the suggestion of FPDS users in Malaysia,” Thompson said. “It’s an incident that happens fairly frequently there. After we added it to the Protocol, we found that agencies in the U.S. were using it as well.”

Rail operations

It can take some trains up to half a mile before they’re able to come to a stop because of how fast they’re going and the size and weight of the load they’re carrying. Sometimes if a vehicle strikes a train far enough away from the locomotive, the conductor may not realize immediately it’s been hit. If a train is stopped or there’s a possibility for other trains to come along the same track, it’s imperative to have some contact with rail operations to make them aware of the problem so they can divert rail traffic accordingly. Operations conducted on a railroad track are always potentially dangerous—good communication and information can make them less so.

If you’ve been provided with the train number, you can convey it to rail operations, then gather information from them using the Additional Information section on Protocol 70. The information you can gather from rail operations includes the exact location of the train, how many people are on board, how many rail cars are involved, and whether the tracks are closed.

“These days, a modern train operator knows what’s going on with a train, they know where it is and if it’s moving, even how fast in some cases,” Thompson said. “They can be an excellent source of information in terms of what the nature of the threat or potential problem is posed by the incident.”

Protocol F: Tunnel Fire

“We had a lot of input on the tunnel fire instructions (Protocol F: Tunnel Fire) from our Italian users,” Thompson said. “When we sat them down to translate the protocol, they made the observation that the instructions themselves needed some modernizing, so we took their advice. Tunnel incidents in the U.S. are relatively statistically rare, so we don’t have a lot of experience with them. The Europeans do, though, so they were a good source of information to make those changes.”

This is another time when contact with railroad operations can make an enormous difference in the outcome of the call. One of the problems with advising callers to escape a tunnel fire is that to do so, they must walk on or near what might be active railways or energized third rails, all of which are potentially dangerous situations. This is why you will only advise the caller to leave the train if there is smoke present inside it, and always with the warning for them to “Watch for power lines, electrified rails, oncoming trains, and other obstacles.” You don’t want to put them in any more danger than they’re already in.

Conclusion

Although train travel is safer than ever before, there are still accidents. If you have rail transport in your area and haven’t taken a call involving a train, it might be only a matter of time before you do. Keep your skills sharp by regularly going through the protocol and its accompanying instructions and practicing scenarios with your co-workers whenever possible.

Sources

1. Trains Staff. “NS train derails near Horseshoe Curve.” TrainsPro. 2026; March 7. trains.com/pro/freight/class-i/ns-train-derails-near-horseshoe-curve (accessed March 9, 2026). 

2. Trains Staff. “Norfolk Southern train derails near Horseshoe Curve.” TrainsPro. 2026; Feb. 6. trains.com/pro/freight/class-i/norfolk-southern-train-derails-near-horseshoe-curve (accessed March 9, 2026). 

3. “FRA Data Confirm Freight Rail Achieved Record Safety Performance in 2025.” Association of American Railroads. 2026; March 4. aar.org/news/fra-data-confirm-freight-rail-achieved-record-safety-performance-in-2025 (accessed March 9, 2026).