Approximately fifty investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board
(NTSB), the Federal Railroad Administration, the Iowa Department of Transportation,
Amtrak, the Burlington Northern Railway, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers,
and the United Transportation Union participated in an investigation of the derailment.
Investigators concluded that the train left the track due to a broken rail, but were not
immediately able to determine if the rail was broken before the incident occurred or if the
rail broke as a result of the derailment.
|
The broken rail was discovered at a point where a patch had previously been
made to replace a section of defective rail. A spokesperson from the NTSB indicated that
this was standard procedure to put in a patch where a problem has been detected. A
maintenance crew had cut a gap into the defective rail and bolted in another piece of rail
approximately four yards in length. NTSB personnel collected pieces of the broken rail
and sent them to Washington, DC for a metallurgical analysis to determine if there were
any defects, which might have contributed to the derailment.
State and local law enforcement officials did not participate in the investigation
because the derailment occurred on private property and did not occur at a railroad
crossing. Therefore, law enforcement officials indicated that did not have any jurisdiction
in the matter because no crime had been committed. Their primary role at the incident
was traffic and crowd control and to assist fire and EMS personnel.
|
 |
The BNSF track had been visually inspected on the day of the accident and no
irregularities had been detected and investigators determined that an eastbound coal train
had passed over the derailment site fifty-seven minutes before the derailment without
incident. The Amtrak crew was tested for drugs or alcohol following the incident. The
results of those tests had not been released when this report was prepared. Repair crews
placed a section of temporary track in the vacant roadbed to reroute trains around the
derailment site in order to allow the investigators to conduct their investigation undisturbed.
The NTSB praised the local emergency crews for their response effort as did
officials from Amtrak. The NTSB also had praise for Amtrak for placing emergency light
sticks on their trains based upon recommendations from the NTSB. NTSB stated that
they believed the availability of a light sourced helped people survive the derailment.
No formal determination as to the exact cause of the derailment had been released
at the time that this report was prepared. In a related note, The California Zephyr was
involved in a collision with another train on September 13, 2001 in Wendover, Utah,
which is near the Nevada line some 120 miles west of Salt Lake City. Only minor injuries
were report, although parts of the train did catch fire.
Next » Lessons Learned
Save to del.icio.us
