Crash Hearings Enter Second Day
During a three-day hearing this week, the National Transportation Safety Board hopes to begin to unravel what led to the crash that left 11 passengers dead and 122 injured after a truck was struck by the City of New Orleans in Bourbonnais, about 50 miles south of Chicago.
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"I don't know that there's anything that is clear one way or another as a result of today," said George Black, the NTSB member who is chairing the hearing into the fiery March 15 collision.
For Black and his four fellow NTSB members, Monday was a day of conflicting testimony.
Luis A. Nieves, who claims he was driving the second of two cars stopped behind John R. Stokes' tractor-trailer, told board members through an interpreter that he saw warning lights and heard bells as Stokes drove through the railroad crossing.
Nieves said he also saw a crossing gate strike Stokes' truck as he attempted to drive it around the barrier, shortly before it was struck in the rear by the train.
But truck driver Aubrey Fosburgh - who was picking up cargo about 75 to 100 yards from the crash site - said the crossing gate was up when Stokes crossed the railroad, adding that he "never (saw) the gate down."
He also described the ball of flame that shot into the air shortly after the crash.
"It was a mess," Fosburgh said, adding that he rushed to the scene to help passengers escape a train car.
The conflicting accounts given by Nieves and Fosburgh did little to clear up two key questions: Was Stokes trying to drive his fully loaded truck around the railroad's crossing gates and beat the oncoming locomotive? Or did the crossing's warning signals activate too late - or not at all - leaving him unaware that the train was rumbling toward him at 79 mph?
Stokes, who was not hurt in the crash, refused to testify Monday on the advice of his attorney. He told authorities soon after the crash that he didn't see the train approaching, and claimed the crossing's warning bells, lights and gates activated after he was on the tracks.
In other testimony Monday, Amtrak attendant Cathi Oliver told board members she still remembers telling a woman and child to leave their train car following the derailment, and the woman pointing to the little girl's leg, where her foot used to be.
That's when the "reality of the whole situation kind of hit me," Oliver said. The March 15 trip was Oliver's first as an Amtrak attendant.
Oliver, frequently breaking into tears, was one of two Amtrak employees at the hearing who described the chaotic scene. Investigators want to find out what happened the night the train collided with a truck loaded with steel.
Engineer Angel Flores, who testified that he did not remember anything that occurred in the immediate aftermath of the collision, said he saw the truck slowly approaching the crossing just before the collision. Flores, who remains on medial leave, was hospitalized for "three to four days" for arm and shoulder injuries, according to Amtrak spokeswoman Debbie Marciniak Hare.
Flores told board members he sounded the whistle and activated the emergency braking system. But he said he did not remember whether lights at the crossing were flashing.
Flores, who blacked out several times while trapped in the locomotive, said he never considered the Bourbonnais crossing particularly dangerous.
"I'm concerned about every crossing," Flores said. "To me, a crossing is a crossing. You have to always be aware."
