How not to run a railroad?

[nkalanaga]

From Railway Age magazine (online), commentary on the NTSB's report on a CSX derailment:
https://www.railwayage.com/safety/make-sure-the-air-brakes-work/

(Aug. 2, 2017 derailment of CSX train Q38831 at Hyndman Borough, Pa. )

"The flange climb was facilitated by the CSX practice of authorizing train crews to apply hand brakes to the freight cars before descending a grade in order to control acceleration. Q38831’s crew made use of that authorization and traversed, or attempted to traverse, this “one of the steepest grades in the CSX system” (page 15). So we have 120 loads, 58 empties, with empties clustered at the head end, on a curve of 8+ degrees on a grade with 33 hand brakes applied to the first 40 cars in the consist. "

[Point353]

EHH arrived at CSX in March 2017.
So, is this an early example of the benefits of precision scheduled railroading?

[StarCruiser]

It does sound to me that far too many people in the industry are too willing to take risks for the sake of increased profits. Sounds like they're trying to roll the clock back...why not just dump all safety standards and just run everything 'balls to the wall'?

[nkalanaga]

Because then the company would be liable for the results, and worker's/shipper's/neighbor's lawyers would have a field day.  The company lawyers wouldn't like that, so they keep the rules.  By letting people ignore them, off the record, the workers can be blamed when something goes wrong, while the company can say "we have rules against that".  When they get away with stuff, the company profits, and no questions are asked.