Fatal truck-train crash in Nevada

[John Ashworth]

Authorities: 6 die in truck-train crash in Nevada

By the CNN Wire Staff
June 26, 2011 3:26 a.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* NEW: Sheriff's office: "No names are being released pending positive identification"
* Federal investigators try to rectify passenger manifest with number on the train
* Authorities say the truck skidded more than 300 feet before hitting the train
* Amateur video paints a chaotic scene following the crash

(CNN) -- Six people were killed when a tractor-trailer truck slammed into a Chicago-to-California Amtrak passenger train at a railroad crossing east of Reno, Nevada, authorities said late Saturday.

The death toll was released just as federal authorities said they were trying to account for passengers missing from the passenger train that was struck Friday at a railroad crossing near Lovelock, Nevada.

"No names are being released pending positive identification and notification of families," the Churchill County, Nevada, sheriff's department said in a written statement.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating, is trying to account for passengers listed on the manifest but not located after the crash, Earl Weener of the NTSB told reporters during a news conference late Saturday night in Sparks, Nevada.

In some cases, it is believed people got off the train earlier or bought a ticket but did not take the train, he said.

"There are a number of reasons that the manifest and that number don't jibe," Weener said.

The 10-car train, which was on its way to Emeryville, California, was carrying 204 passengers and 14 crew members, Amtrak said in a statement released Friday.

It was not immediately clear how many people were injured. Amtrak said that numerous people aboard the train had been taken to area hospitals for treatment.

Amateur video taken after the crash showed huge plumes of black smoke billowing from the train as a fire burned. Passengers and crew members stood outside.

One voice on the video can be heard telling people to get away from the smoke. Another tells a woman, out of view, to "hang and jump." A third voice asks someone, "Are you OK?"

"Next thing I know, we get hit by something. A big ball of fire comes in. I jumped out the window," passenger Justin Rhine told CNN affiliate KOLO-TV in Reno. "I saw people flying on the other side of the train."

Skid marks show the driver of the truck slammed on his brakes, sliding more than 300 feet before hitting the train, sparking a fire, Weener said. The fire burned the truck and two train cars, he said.

The initial investigation found the signal light and crossing guard arms were working, and that there was good visibility of the train tracks from the road, he said.

The truck was the lead in a three-truck convoy as it approached the train tracks, Weener said.

The two following saw the train signal and slowed to stop, "waiting for him to come to stop," he said.

Though the driver of the truck has not been identified, Weener said the truck belonged to John Davies Trucking of Battle Mountain, Nevada.

The trucking company, which advertises itself as family-owned business that hauls concrete, did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.

6 killed in Amtrak train crash, 28 unaccounted for

John Coté, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle June 26, 2011 04:00 AM

Six people were killed and 28 remain unaccounted for in the fiery collision of a semi-trailer and an Emeryville-bound Amtrak train in the Nevada desert, officials said late Saturday.

It wasn't until Saturday afternoon that the wreckage was safe enough to allow search teams to enter the burned-out hulks of two passenger cars in the 10-car train that exploded in a fireball on Friday.

A team of 18 investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board is examining the wreckage, but they don't yet have a full explanation of why the crash occurred.

Two other truck drivers watched in horror and disbelief as the lead semi-tractor trailer in their convoy failed to stop for flashing warning signals and plowed into the train, the federal investigators said.

"The two other trucks noticed the signs and took action," NTSB member Earl Weener said at a briefing. "The lead truck did not stop."

The initial findings only deepen the mystery of why the big rig slammed into the California Zephyr at a remote highway crossing about 70 miles east of Reno, shortly before 11:30 a.m. on Friday.

The fellow drivers in the three-truck convoy described ample warnings signs and functioning crossing gates and warning lights, Weener said. The first warning sign was almost 900 feet before what Weener described as a state-of-the-art rail crossing gate. There were additional markers at 650 feet.

Skid marks show the lead driver, who died in the crash and authorities have refused to identify, applied the brakes beginning at about 320 feet from the crossing but was unable to stop in time, officials said.

But more than a day after the rig, owned by John Davies Trucking of Battle Mountain, Nev., slammed into the train, little information was available about who was killed and who was missing in the collision.

The investigators from NTSB combed through the charred wreckage, trying to determine why a semi-tractor trailer hauling empty gravel containers hurtled through the wooden safety gates and flashing lights at the remote highway crossing.

Crews also had the grim task of searching the charred hulk of part of the train for bodies.

The fireball that raged through the train cars made it too risky for crews to search the wreckage until Saturday afternoon, authorities said.

"The fire weakened the structure of the cars and they could collapse," Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Dan Lopez said. "The safety of workers is a big thing, and we don't want to put someone else in an unsafe situation."

Amtrak officials, who earlier said there were 204 passengers and 14 crew members aboard the California Zephyr, were scouring the passenger manifest to determine how many riders were on the train and how many had bought tickets but did not use them.

There's difficulty in knowing exactly how many passengers were onboard the train, Weener said.

"It's not like an airplane where there's a record of who gets on," he said. "On a train, people can get on and off as they will."

The truck driver is expected to be the focus of the investigation.

"That's what everybody wants to know. Why did the truck collide with the train?" Lopez said. "Unfortunately ... he was pronounced dead."

Investigators are expected to review the man's driving and medical history. Autopsy results would probably indicate whether the driver had consumed any drugs before the collision.

More than 80 people were taken to hospitals in Reno and the surrounding area, some in helicopters, authorities said. Six of the nine who had been taken to Renown Regional Medical Center, the local trauma hospital, were released by Saturday afternoon. Of the three who remained, one was listed in critical condition.

The riders' injuries included blunt trauma, fractures, abrasions, lacerations and internal organ damage, but not burns, Renown officials said.

Another 76 people were treated at Banner Churchill Community Hospital in Fallon, about 63 miles east of Reno, hospital spokeswoman Amiee Fulk said. All but one had been released by Saturday.

Dozens of other passengers were being taken by chartered buses to their destinations, Amtrak officials said. The first buses arrived in Emeryville around midnight Friday. Trains had to be rerouted around the crash site and the highway remained closed around the scene of the wreck.

The train had originated in Chicago. It was due to arrive in Emeryville at 4:10 p.m. Friday.

"Right now it's a shock to everybody's system," Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole said, "but I think at the end of the day, we run a reliable and safe railroad."

[Mike Haslam]

This was on the TV news, the same evening it happened.

No matter how well you protect the crossing, give signals, warnings, you cannot account for the failure of humans..........

The same TV broadcast said that there was a crossing incident every 100 minutes on the American Railroads. If this is true, that is a huge amount of human folly on display.

[John Ashworth]

When I lived in Spokane, Washington, for a couple of years in the early '90s, I remember there was a month when they put traffic cops riding on the locomotives in the area. They arrested (or ticketed or whatever they do in the USA) literally hundreds of road users for failure to stop at level (grade) crossings.