John Hiatt knows the train industry.
For nearly, 10 years he worked as an engineer in Livingston, and for the last 30, he's worked at a law firm in Washington state investigating derailments.
So, Hiatt knows how devastating the recent derailment near Reed Point could've been.
"Your heart pumps when you think about the fact that these guys somehow got over this bridge and lived to tell about it," Hiatt told MTN News in an online video call Thursday morning.
Hiatt, who was born and raised in Livingston, has plenty of memories about close calls and said he has been involved in derailments.
"Most of the time it happens in cars behind you so you don't even feel it," Hiatt said. "I've had some scary ones, though. I ran through a herd full of cattle right along the river over in Logan, Montana. It scares the heck out of you."
During his time in Montana, Hiatt was an operator on the tracks for Burlington Northern Santa Fe (now BNSF Rail) in the 1980s before Montana Rail Link agreed to lease the line and take over operations. He said that he needed to have his ankle surgically repaired following a work-related injury before MRL took over. Once he got healthy, he said the job was no longer available.
"The options were pretty limited," Hiatt said. "I had my ankle reconstructed and the railroad wasn't too interested in having an injured guy out there, so I just made a deal with them and moved on."
Hiatt said that he ran trains along the bridge that washed out, known as Twin Bridges. He added that the situation could have ended up much worse.
“I don’t know how, but for good karma and good luck that this bridge didn’t fail when the locomotives were on it, because they are quite heavy," Hiatt said. "If that had happened, we would’ve lost some guys."
And while he is grateful that no one died and the damage appears to be fairly minimal, Hiatt knows that the accident will have long-term consequences.
"We've got a bunch of cars in the river, we've got a bridge washed out, and we're going to have a lot of guys scrambling for employment," Hiatt said.
Hiatt said the industry already deals with staffing shortages on a daily basis.
"The systemic failure within the railroad industry between supervisors and employees is bad," Hiatt said. "Most of the people out there are worked to the absolute max."
Hiatt said that employment shortages aren't the only issues plaguing the industry and that there is a culture focused more on income than safety.
"The railroad companies are very good at pointing out when a guy gets injured or killed that he could’ve done things differently," Hiatt said. "I think it should be turned around on the railroads. This should’ve been prevented."
Hiatt said that the infrastructure across the country needs to be repaired and that inspections of the tracks and cars need to be regulated. Most of all, Hiatt is hopeful there is some change, fearing that the industry might die without it.
“I enjoyed running trains. I enjoyed running Amtrak over that very track," Hiatt said. "I did that for eight and a half years. That was a great job, but when you see it deteriorating, it’s so senseless."
