Train Crash Investigators Focus On Why Truck Was in Crossing
Federal safety investigators are hoping the engineer and the truck driver can explain why the truck was straddling the tracks, causing a crash that killed at least 13 and injured more than 100.
"There have been reports that possibly this truck went around the gates and we are trying to determine if that's what happened," John Goglia of the National Transportation Safety Board said late Tuesday.
He told the "Today" show this morning that investigators were checking tire tracks that went around the gates to see if they matched the truck.
Three or more people were missing and feared dead in the wreckage of the City of New Orleans, which met disaster at 9:47 p.m. Monday night at a rural crossing 50 miles south of Chicago.
Bob Lauby, director of the NTSB's office of railroad safety, said today that tire marks were found on the road, the timber of the crossing and on the road shoulder in the dirt.
"We document that evidence and we try to match it to the truck.
The tire marks may belong to the truck, they may not," Lauby said.
"Put all these marks together and we should be able to recreate exactly where the truck was and how it negotiated that crossing."
Goglia said that a breath test of the truck driver showed no sign of alcohol, but that investigators were still waiting on blood and urine tests.
Lauby said investigators searching for the cause were focusing on the trucker as well as the grade crossing, signal system and other factors.
With mangled train cars from the wreck moved off the tracks, rail traffic had resumed this morning at the crossing.
As rescue workers searched for victims, truck driver John R. Stokes, 58, told investigators that he didn't see the train approach and that the warning lights started flashing after he
tarted across the tracks.
Stokes was driving on a probationary license after receiving three speeding tickets in a year, authorities said.
Both Stokes and the engineer were questioned Tuesday, but investigators said more time was needed. They said the engineer was taking medication as a result of the crash and had trouble
nswering questions.
"We will pursue this with vigor to determine if this is a signal problem or if in fact we have a driver problem," said Goglia, who is in charge of the NTSB investigation.
He said the black box in the lead locomotive recorded what happened just before the crash. It showed the train was moving at 79 mph - the legal maximum. He said the engineer was blowing his whistle and trying to stop the train.
The two-locomotive train pulling 14 cars smashed into the truck and then slammed into a pair of railroad cars on a siding before stopping. The cars jackknifed and piled up behind the locomotives.
Leaking diesel fuel erupted in flames.
Those killed were in a double-decker sleeping car. Officials said a locomotive ripped into the car, crushing some of the passengers. The fire engulfed the sleeping car, authorities said.
Rescue crews worked furiously to remove victims while fire trucks poured water on the flames.
In Madison, Wis., Gov. Tommy Thompson, Amtrak's chairman, said the driver of the semitrailer, flat-bed truck was trying to "serpentine" through the gates, which were already down before he entered the crossing.
"The engineer said he saw lights flashing, he saw the barriers down and then he saw the truck stop and try to get around it," Thompson said.
Goglia said NTSB investigators had heard similar reports concerning what the engineer said but couldn't consider them verified until they make a fresh effort to interview him.
The two gates at the crossing appeared to be functioning properly, according to David Farrell, an Illinois Commerce Commission spokesman.
Jack Burke, a spokesman for the Illinois Central Railroad, which maintains the gates, said a recording device in the signal house indicated there was no malfunction.
"We are absolutely confident that the gates worked perfectly last night," Burke said. He said they were last inspected Feb. 24.
Burke said the red signal light starts flashing five seconds before the gates go down and the gates go down 26 seconds before the train reaches the crossing, regardless of the train's speed.
NTSB put that time at 27 seconds.
Cy Gura, an NTSB investigator, described Stokes as "very sad and upset. He felt he did whatever he thought he could do to clear the train track but he didn't do it."
NTSB officials said they would also investigate a railroad car on a siding north of the crash site to determine if it may have blocked the truck driver's view.
Fourteen people were confirmed dead by the coroner. NTSB officials said their count was 13.
The names of those killed were not released immediately. The Commercial Appeal in Memphis reported Wednesday the dead included a woman and three children from Mississippi, who were returning from a doll show in Chicago.
They were identified as June Bonnin, 47 and her 12-year-old granddaughter, Jessica Whitaker, both of Nesbitt, Miss.; and Rainy Lipscomb, 10, and Lacey Lipscomb, 8, of Lake Cormorant, Miss.
For more details on the accident, see the March 22 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.
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