Two BNSF workers died this month due to COVID-19 and work accident Two workers for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad have died so far this month, one due to COVID-19 and the other in an industrial accident. Their deaths are the product of continuous speedup and cost-cutting, with which the railroad industry has continued in spite of the pandemic. Fifty-three-year-old locomotive engineer Bryan D. Stowe died from COVID-19 last Monday. He had 23 years seniority at BNSF and was member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLET) Division 98 in Lincoln, Nebraska. BNSF is the largest Class 1 railroad in North America and has 41,000 employees.