On the night of March 17, 2001 Amtrak’s westbound California Zephyr passenger
train derailed at 11:40 PM between Brooks and Nodaway in Adams County, Iowa.
The train was traveling along a section of track owned by the Burlington Northern
Santa Fe Railway and was carrying 225 passengers and sixteen crewmembers. The
maximum passenger capacity is 519. One passenger died as a result of blunt force
trauma sustained during the derailment and ninety-six others required transportation to
a medical facility. Two of the injuries were serious enough to warrant evacuation by
helicopter.
The derailment occurred in a very remote area just east of the Nodaway River.
Two engines and nine of the fifteen cars left the tracks, but did not catch fire or spill
any fuel. Two of the cars came to rest perpendicular to the tracks and several of the rail
cars overturned or came to rest on their sides. Many of the passengers were already
asleep when the incident occurred and were disoriented when they awoke because of
the attitude of the cars and almost total darkness due to the absence of electrical power.
The crew of the Zephyr contacted the BNSF dispatcher in Fort Worth, Texas
and reported that the train had derailed. The SNSF dispatcher contacted the Adams
County Sheriff’s Department and provided the authorities with the location of the
derailment, but was unable to provide any additional details concerning the number and
extent of the injuries or the magnitude of the incident. Local fire, EMS, and law enforcement
agencies were immediately dispatched.
When the derailment occurred, the Corning Volunteer Fire Department was
hosting its annual fundraiser at the National Guard Armory and was preparing to serve
breakfast at the fire station after the festivities concluded. Consequently, the department
was fully staffed and the response to the incident was immediate. Upon hearing
the incident dispatched, other area emergency services offered their assistance, which
was readily accepted. The spouses of the firefighters also went into action to assist
with the potential influx of patients at the local hospital and to shelter and feed the
passengers that had not been injured.
The scene that greeted rescuers upon their arrival was eerily similar to the
movie Field of Dreams. As soon as the passengers spotted the lights from the emergency
vehicles, they began to quietly move toward the light and seemed to magically
appear out of the darkness. Rescuers commented that the victims were very calm and the incident scene was unusually quiet. Rather than panic, people had attended to the
injured and had helped each other evacuate the wreckage.
Access to the derailment site was limited since the derailment had not occurred at a
crossing. Open pasture and farmland bordered the site on the north and south. Originally,
there had been parallel tracks along the section where the derailment occurred. The southern
track had been abandoned, but the roadbed had been maintained by the railroad to provide
access along the track and small vehicles were able to use the roadbed to reach the site of the
incident from a narrow road that was approximately one quarter of a mile west of the incident
site and from another road that was located three-eights of a mile east of the site. Therefore,
emergency responders were able to access the derailment site from two directions.
Access from two points proved to be significant, because two of the derailed cars
completely blocked both the track and the abandoned roadbed, essentially dividing the
incident site in half. Terrain and soft ground prevented the rescuers from driving around
the wreckage and the roadbed was so narrow that it was impossible to turn around.
Therefore, emergency vehicles were forced to drive in to the site from both the east and
west side of the incident and then back out to the road.
Because of the large number of passengers and crewmembers (241), many of
those who had not been injured or had only sustained minor injuries were taken out in the
back of a pick-up truck or in a four-wheeled drive vehicle. Ambulances were then free to
transport the more seriously injured victims to area hospitals following triage and stabilization.
The two most seriously injured were taken by helicopter to a trauma center.
Those that had not been injured were taken by school bus to the Nodaway Community
Center, where a temporary shelter had been opened. The occupants of the train
were re-examined at the Community Center to make sure that they had not been injured.
Later into the incident, Amtrak arranged for everyone to be transferred to hotels in
Omaha, Nebraska, some seventy miles away.
Approximately 200 emergency responders from a number of local and state
agencies responded to the incident. The remoteness of the location allowed law enforcement
officials to quickly establish a perimeter to secure the area and to prevent the curious
from interfere with rescue efforts. The time of the day also contributed to limiting
the number of curiosity seekers at the scene. Most of the civilians that did go to the scene
used their personal vehicles (pickups, SUV’s, and van’s) to assist in the removal of the
passengers from the derailment site.
The incident lasted approximately three hours and by the time the national and international
media began to descend on Corning, the event was largely over. More than 519 calls
from the media and family members were processed by the Adams County Sheriff’s Office.
More than fifty investigators from state and federal agencies scoured the site of
the derailment to determine the cause of the incident. The exact cause had not been
determined at the time that this report was written, but the National Transportation Safety
Board determined that the incident occurred at the site of a broken rail. A section of the
rail had been previously removed and had been patched, a common practice in the railroad
industry. It was not immediately determined in the derailment occurred because of
the broken rail or if the rail broke as a result of the derailment.
Next » Key Issues
Save to del.icio.us
