When accidents happen, they too often claim a life or result in serious injury.

It is the job of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to investigate serious accidents.

When the NTSB rolls, so does the UTU's Transportation Safety Team (TST).

The coordinator of the TST usually gets the first call from an NTSB official. Depending upon the location and nature of the accident, the coordinator decides which members he will designate to assist the NTSB in its investigation.

Those dreaded calls come at any hour of the day and night. Like firemen, TST members must always have bags packed and are ready to roll.

When TST members arrive on scene they receive special authority, called "party status," granted by the NTSB. Party status, along with special identity cards, permit TST members access to sealed-off areas at the accident scene.

As the NTSB is a congressionally created fact-finding body -- with no regulatory authority -- TST members must walk a very narrow line. Their role is to assist NTSB investigators as requested. Two of their toughest responsibilities are never to speculate and always to keep their lips sealed.

From experience, NTSB investigators and TST members know first-hand that with facts, the devil is in the details. Initial eyewitness reports often are incomplete or even incorrect. Even after the NTSB conducts exhaustive interviews with those involved and those who may have witnessed an accident, facts often are cloudy. Evidence must be collected and laboratory tests conducted.

It can be weeks and even months before the NTSB has enough evidence to reach a determination as to cause. Sometimes, sadly, the cause cannot be determined.

When the NTSB does reach a determination as to the probable cause of an accident, it generally makes recommendations for new safety regulations and laws. In fact, 85 percent of NTSB recommendations result in new federal guidelines, regulations and laws.

NTSB investigators are the best of their breed. Vacancies are filled following extensive interviews of hundreds of job applicants. Those few who make the cut are chosen for their demonstrated expertise and experience and respect for facts and truth.

This is why Congress gives the NTSB sole authority to investigate transportation accidents. When NTSB investigators arrive at the scene of an accident, they take control. Everyone else - police, firemen and state and federal regulators and other officials, including the carrier -- answers to the NTSB. An exception is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) -- but only until environmental dangers are removed.

The UTU's TST often provides crucial assistance to NTSB investigators. Team members also assist NTSB investigators in locating crew members and others familiar with the territory where the accident occurred as well as the motive power, equipment and signal systems in use and characteristics of track and rail operation, as well as railroad rules in force.

TST members also have special knowledge of hazardous materials that are hauled by railroads.

As requested by NTSB investigators, TST members offer their own knowledge.

Since the UTU's TST was created in 1995, team members have been chosen for their demonstrated knowledge in the various railroad crafts. Team members are respected by NTSB investigators for their detailed and extensive knowledge of all facets of railroad operations - and, especially, their impartiality in relating that knowledge.

The UTU's TST also performs another important service -- one that benefits UTU members. A UTU member involved in an accident can demand that a TST member or union officer be present during questioning to serve as a witness to what was said. TST members can also assist UTU members in ensuring that a UTU officer is present should railroad officials seek to question a UTU member -- and that railroad officials not violate terms of the UTU contract with that carrier.

In early January 2005, the UTU's TST members spent nearly a week working with NTSB investigators at the site of a rail accident in Graniteville, S.C., which claimed the life of a locomotive engineer and seriously injured a conductor.

UTU's TST worked closely with the NTSB's go-team, which included lead investigator Jim Southworth.