I filed away this Winston-Salem Journal editorial saying the rise in oil field deaths are the result of “our senseless addiction to oil.”

Now I come upon Antiplanner’s Reason # 57 to oppose rail transit: rail workers’ disabilities.

But the crazy part is while the Long Island Railroad is indeed one of the nation’s most dangerous places to work, retired workers have found a gold mine in disability payments:

The L.I.R.R.’s record also raises questions about why the Railroad Retirement Board approves nearly 100 percent of disability requests from all the nation’s railroads. The board is funded through taxes on railroads and their workers, but Social Security had to contribute $3.6 billion last year to cover expenses….

In fact, the 12 highest paid L.I.R.R. engineers in 2006 — most earning over $200,000 — are now retired and receiving disability payments, records show. And so are the top-earning conductors, three of whom had incomes over $190,000.

One retired engineer managed to play a lot of golf despite his disability.