Recent railroad accidents caused by employees doing routine repair work killed one person and endangered dozens of passengers and workers, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which has issued four recommendations intended to address the problem.

OSHA has ordered the Union Pacific Railroad Co., headquartered in Omaha, Neb., to immediately reinstate an employee who was terminated in violation of the Federal Railroad Safety Act for reporting a work-related injury. The company will pay more than $350,000 in back wages with interest, compensatory and punitive damages.

Human error made by workers caused a 2012 collision of two Canadian National Railway freight trains in Minnesota that injured all five crewmembers on the two trains, according to a report by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

The BNSF Railway Co. has signed an accord with OSHA in which the company agrees to voluntary revise several personnel policies that OSHA alleged violated the whistleblower provisions of the Federal Railroad Safety Act and dissuaded workers from reporting on-the-job injuries.

For the third time in less than three months, Norfolk Southern has been ordered to pay penalties for illegally firing two workers. The latest fines levied by OSHA for violating whistleblower protection laws total $932,070.

A National Transportation Safety Board team is en route to Ellicott City, Md, to investigate a fatal freight train derailment that occurred just after midnight.

Norfolk Southern Railway Co. has once again been found guilty of retaliating against a worker who reported a work-related injury – which is creating a chilling effect in the railroad industry, according to OSHA.

Of four employees involved in a 2009 work accident at a Southern Railway facility, only the one who was injured was charged with improper performance of duties and fired.

Threats and intimidation were used to prevent a worker suffering from blurred vision and a bloody nose from getting medical care during his shift, according to OSHA.

Less than four years after a California train disaster spurred passage of major safety legislation, railroad companies are pushing hard to relax the law’s chief provision.