The Dutch drop is not inherently unsafe, just a bit trickier than a simple
drop or a kick. The trick is to keep the moving dropped car's velocity low,
or perhaps have a slight grade to assist and simply let gravity move the
car. Putting a brakeman on the car to help control speed (or stop the car in
case of emergency) can help. All this can be achieved with a car with
sufficient mass that it has high inertia, as most prototype cars have.
Except for the run in I described in a much earlier post, I think the most
embarassing I have actually seen in a Dutch drop situation was when the
dropped car had only enough energy to drive it to the center of the switch -
trapping the locomotive on the spur and the car spanning the points, no
poling pole. Whoops. The crew ended up pushing the offending car out of the
way with a Jeep from a nearby grain elevator.

Tom Jones