7 replies to this topic

[CNJRoss]

NTSB news release:

NTSB Launches Go-Team to Investigate Railroad Accident in Arkansas
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October 16, 2014
WASHINGTON –The National Transportation Safety Board has launched a go-team to investigate today's accident in Northwest, Arkansas involving a freight train and a passenger train. Numerous injuries have been reported.

Railroad investigator Jim Southworth is leading the team as investigator-in-charge. Board Member Mark R. Rosekind is accompanying the team and will serve as the principal spokesman during the on-scene phase of the investigation.

Public Affairs Officer Eric Weiss will also be on-scene in Arkansas to coordinate media-related activities. He can be reached at eric.weiss@ntsb.gov or by mobile phone at XXX-XXX-XXXX.

Follow us on twitter (@ntsb) for announcements related to the investigation.

[CNJRoss]

FOX News, 10/16:

44 injured, 5 critical in Arkansas train collision, report says

A passenger train on a sight-seeing trip collided with a freight train Thursday in northwest Arkansas injuring 44, including five critically, THV11 reported.

The incident occurred at about 10:30 a.m. and involved four passenger cars carrying 44 passengers and six crew members. Emergency responders were at the scene in Washington County and transported 31 to local hospitals, the report said.

SNIP

Details of the crash remain unclear. An official from the county told the station that the passenger train, which left from Springdale and en route to Van Buren, a 134-mile trip, stalled and the other train was sent to assist. But somehow the assisting train collided with the stalled one, the source said.

More here.

[CNJRoss]

KNWA-TV / KFTA-TV, Fayettville, AR. 10/16:

Freight Train Collides With Passenger Train, Multiple Injuries



UPDATE 3:24PM: Hospitals all over NWA have taken in patients from Thursdays train accident. Washington Regional has treated a total of 14 people. Five patients are being treated in trauma care.

At of 2:30 p.m. today, all patients related to this incident and treated at Washington Regional are listed in stable condition and are in various stages of treatment.

More here.

Note: Train reportedly stalled on wet leaves; sand pile by wheel supports that report.

[CNJRoss]

KFSM-TV, Fort Smith, AR; KXNW-TV, Fayetteville, AR, 10/16:

Feds Begin Investigating Washington County Train Collision

WASHINGTON COUNTY (KFSM) -Federal safety authorities on Thursday night (Oct. 16) began investigating the a train crash from earlier in the day that hospitalized 44 passengers. A train engine collided with a passenger train south of West Fork on Thursday morning, according to the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board arrived at the crash site Thursday night following a briefing at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Bentonville. NTSB officials will spend the next five to seven days investigating the train crash and determining how the collision happened.

Continue here w/video report and photo gallery.

[CNJRoss]

AP vie The News and Observer, Raliegh, NC:

NTSB: Train in crash going faster than it should

WINSLOW, Ark. — A train that collided with a stalled passenger train in Arkansas was coming to its aid and was apparently going too fast, a National Transportation Safety Board member said Friday.

SNIP

A train coming to help a stalled Arkansas & Missouri Railroad train crashed into it, Mark Rosekind with the NTSB said in a telephone interview Friday. He said the train should have been moving at no more than 20 miles per hour, but appears to have been traveling 25 miles per hour. Rosekind said the estimation is preliminary and based on information from recorders on the assist train.

Continue here.

NTSB media briefing. (YouTube)

[CNJRoss]

KOTV, Tulsa, OK 6/2:
 

2014 Arkansas Train Crash Blamed On Speed, Slick Rails

 

 

WASHINGTON COUNTY, Arkansas -  A National Transportation Safety Board report on the probable cause of 2014 crash involving a sightseeing train and a locomotive south of Fayetteville was speed and slick rails.

 

On October 16, 2014, an Arkansas & Missouri Railroad train lost traction while en route from Springdale to Van Buren, causing it to come to a stop.

 

A locomotive sent to help that train, struck the excursion train's engine head-on at 24 mph.  The speed limit on that section of track was 20 mph.

 

Continue here.

[CNJRoss]

NTSB Railroad Accident Brief (Extract), 5/25/17:

 

 

Railroad Accident Brief: Collision of Two Arkansas & Missouri Railroad Trains Brentwood, Arkansas

 

Executive Summary

​On Thursday, October 16, 2014, at 10:25 a.m. central daylight time, a northbound Arkansas & Missouri Railroad Company (A&M) work train locomotive (work train) collided with a stopped southbound A&M excursion train at milepost (MP) 368.25 in Brentwood, Arkansas.1 The excursion train stopped because it had lost track adhesion and was not able to move up the 1.1 percent grade. The work train traveled north to rescue the stopped excursion train and collided with the excursion train. The work train’s speed at impact was about 24 mph. Thirty-nine passengers and four A&M employees were transported to local hospitals and medical centers with non-life-threatening injuries. One of the damaged passenger cars released about 40 gallons of diesel fuel from a generator fuel tank, but the fuel did not ignite. The A&M estimated the damages at $178,500. At the time of the collision the wind was calm with scattered clouds, and the temperature was 66°F.

Probable Cause

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was the failure of the work train crew to comply with the restricted speed requirement that limited train speed to no more than 20 mph and their failure to be prepared to stop within one-half the range of vision when approaching the stopped excursion train. Contributing to the accident were the informal communications of the train dispatcher and both train crews.

 

 

Full report.

[CNJRoss]

Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 7/14/17:
 

Former employee sues railroad over injuries after wreck near West Fork

 

 

FAYETTEVILLE -- A former employee says poor and unsafe working conditions at the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad led to a 2014 train wreck that caused his injuries, according to a federal lawsuit.

 

Kevin Buehne, a former engineer, seeks money for medical expenses, missed wages, diminished future wages and missed benefits, according to his legal complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court.

 

SNIP

 

Buehne was the engineer on a work train that hit a stalled passenger train head-on on Oct. 16, 2014. All 39 passengers and four members of the crew from the two trains were taken to hospitals. The injuries were described at the time as not life-threatening.

 

More here.