SEPTA worker fights ruling on accident that killed rail inspector

A SEPTA worker involved in a fatal 2009 Regional Rail accident is fighting a federal effort to disqualify him from safety-sensitive rail work until 2019.

Vance Almond, 57, of South Philadelphia, contends he is being made a scapegoat in the death of rail inspector Kevin Sparks, who was hit and killed by a West Trenton train on Nov. 5, 2009, during a transit strike.

About 8:30 a.m. that day, Train 327 was coming out of a curve at 65 m.p.h., traveling south on tracks usually used by northbound trains, just south of the Melrose Park station, federal accident investigators found.

Almond's job was to warn oncoming trains of the track work and alert Sparks to any approaching trains.

A Federal Railroad Administration hearing officer concluded in 2013 that Almond, who narrowly avoided being struck by the train, "willfully violated" railroad safety rules by not devoting "his full attention to detecting approaching trains and communicating warnings thereof."

Almond said that he did alert Sparks, 34, of Sharon Hill, and that both men moved to the side of the northbound tracks, assuming the southbound train was approaching on southbound tracks.

Almond said SEPTA management and the train engineer should share in the responsibility for Sparks' death. He said dispatchers did not alert the track workers the northbound track was being used by a southbound train, and he said the train was exceeding the speed limit.

He also said normal Regional Rail operations had been disrupted by SEPTA management's efforts to cope with heavy rail demand brought on by the transit strike, which idled all buses, subways, and trolleys.

"I want the parties that are responsible to step up," Almond said in a recent interview. "They put a train on us that killed Mr. Sparks."

Sparks, an eight-year SEPTA employee and Marine Corps veteran, left behind a wife and five children.

The hearing officer last year ordered Almond banned for five years from safety-sensitive rail work.

A lawyer for the federal agency has requested that the five years begin when the hearing officer's decision takes effect, probably this year.

Almond contends the five-year period expired this month, because SEPTA had withheld him from safety-sensitive work since the 2009 accident.

He remains employed by SEPTA as a "track general helper." SEPTA tried to fire him in 2013 but reversed his termination after Almond's union, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, challenged the firing, noting that the federal appeals process had not run its course.

SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams said SEPTA did not single out Almond for discipline after the accident.

"This has always been an investigation by the [Federal Railroad Administration]," she said. "SEPTA has not singled him out; we just followed the rulings of the [administration]."

Since the accident, SEPTA has upgraded its safety requirements and designated the area where the fatality happened a "hot spot" that requires multiple watchers to protect track workers.

Such hot spots, Williams said, are places where "there may be blind spots or blind curves, or one watchman can't see both ends."