Employee dies at Norfolk Southern yard in Pennsylvania

Details surrounding incident at Enola yard near Harrisburg not immediately clear

Norfolk Southern is looking into why an employee died at the Enola yard. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

A Norfolk Southern employee died after suffering injuries Wednesday at its Enola yard, outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

NS (NYSE: NSC) hasn’t named the employee, and the company told FreightWaves that details of the incident are still unclear.

“The loved ones of our employee are in our thoughts, as are his colleagues,” NS said.

According to data from the Federal Railroad Administration, five employees working for U.S. passenger and freight railroads have died at work between January 1 and May 31, compared with 11 people in all of 2020, nine in 2019 and 17 in 2018. The deaths aren’t necessarily operations-related.

None of those employee deaths in 2021 occurred at NS. One NS employee died while at work in 2020, while two NS employees died at work in 2019 and none died in 2018, according to data submitted to FRA.

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Joanna Marsh

Joanna is a Washington, DC-based writer covering the freight railroad industry. She has worked for Argus Media as a contributing reporter for Argus Rail Business and as a market reporter for Argus Coal Daily.