Investigation of Railway Events Analysis case, Derailment and overturning of a MOTOR CAR

Abstract

The Transportation Safety Board (JST) is a decentralized and independent national body that operates under the orbit of the Ministry of Transportation of the Nation. It was created in 2019 based on Law 27514, with which the transport security policy was declared of public interest and as an objective of the Argentine Republic. The mission of the JST is to contribute to this end through the investigation of accidents and incidents and through the issuance of operational safety recommendations.In accordance with Law 27514, Resolution 170/2018 and General Law of Argentine Railways 2873, this investigation is of a strictly technical nature and its information and documentation should not generate a presumption of guilt or administrative, civil or criminal responsibility.This investigation has been carried out with the sole and fundamental objective of preventing accidents and incidents as established in article 18 of Law 27514.Law 27514 determines a railway accident as any event related to the circulation of a railway vehicle that causes the death or serious injury of a person, serious damage to rolling stock, railway infrastructure or the environment, collision, crash or derailment rolling stock, or fire or spillage in rolling stock or rail infrastructure.Likewise, derailment shall be understood as the physical effect of disconnection between the rolling stock and the railway trace on which it runs when both longitudinal axes (rolling stock and infrastructure) stop coinciding, moving away from each other at a certain angle. Derailment is considered any case in which at least one wheel of the train is disengaged.On June 3, 2021, a motorized fox with train number 7001, departed at 14:58 from km 1161 with eight operators on board, heading to the Salta station, located in the province of the same name. At approximately 4:00 p.m., while driving through the Solís Pizarro2 level crossing, the motorized fox and its tool-carrying platform suffered a derailment and fell on the embankment of the road. Due to the accident, one of the operators lost his life and seven were injured.The JST applies the so-called ""systemic model"" of investigation, whose purpose is to determine the deficiencies in the defenses of the system that contribute to the occurrence of an event. The product of the investigations that are carried out with this model are the Operational Safety Recommendations, which are included in the Operational Safety Report carried out at the end of them.