AMARILLO, Texas – Two BNSF Railway trains collided head on near the small town of Panhandle, about 27 miles northeast of Amarillo on Tuesday morning. Preliminary reports from KFDA-TV NewChannel 10 in Amarillo show two double-stack container trains derailed and on fire in a field along the Class I railroad’s main line in the area.
“(Federal Railroad Administration) investigators on site have confirmed two BNSF intermodal freight trains collided head-on near Panhandle, Texas. Injuries reported,” the agency says via Twitter.
Fox News reports that only one of the presumed four employees involved has been located. That person was transported to a nearby hospital in stable condition.
According to BNSF, the trains involved are S-LACLPC1-26 and Q-CHISBD6-27.
Both the FRA and National Transportation Safety Board have sent investigators to the scene, according to the agencies’ Twitter accounts.
The line is part of BNSF’s former Santa Fe “Southern Transcon” route between Southern California and Chicago. At the site of the derailment the route is known as the Panhandle Subdivision.
Trains News Wire will offer the latest information on this developing story.
lot of people watching this see the trains moving into each other—not realizing that both trains had DP power on ends which because of 8 second delay between lead motor responce time for DP to copy that control responce they are[ DP’] still shoving cars into pile-up even though the air was spiked—a lot can happen in eight seconds as you can tell. the one person that is not mentioned with all of this is the dispatcher on that line.
One has to wonder what will happen if the push continues for one person crews.
Horrible,…just horrible! I respect the fact that BNSF is keeping the names of the victims private out of respect for the victims’ families while the investigation is underway!
SPAD = Signal Passed At Danger. Not a term generally used in the Americas. It’s used quite often in UK accident reports and studies.
Any number of possibilities – dispatching error, malfunctioning switch machine or signal , crew missing a signal and running through a switch, etc. At a potential closing speed of 140 mph and stopping distance up to two miles for each train, visual reaction to an error would not prevent the collision. . 🙁
I am wondering also about Raton. Seems a perfect time to bring its value back to the fore. Does anyone have any information or see the trains in NM and CO?
Just think about it…meet after meet at the closing speed of 140 mph (or more) and here is another; holy cow!!
Crews are required to be awake and comply to the signals. The dispatchers who have radio contact to every train do not call and talk to each train when they line-up a same track head-on with one train set to go into a siding. Talking to both crews would be far cheaper than Positive Train Control. If I speculate, and one crew is asleep 3 hours after they went on duty, this is what happens.
How the heck could two trains on a miles long straight away manage to collide head-on under absolutely clear conditions?
Hmm I wonder will raton pass be used as a route around this wreck
How on earth can this happen this day and age? I ride a commuter rail every day which is mostly single track, and meets happen on sked at speed at the double track passings. Yikes.
How did signals not alert the crews that another train was on their track?
Terrible nightmare-inducing tragedy. Seems PTC-preventable.
Let’s be thankful it wasn’t a loaded CBR train. Still, what a mess. Hopefully we will know sooner rather than later what went wrong.
Looking at the drone video (from the link below), it appears that both trains were actually on the same track – and collided head-on.
Be wary of media reports…..They will have four conductors driving the trains. Really sad.
Well it does look like this was a head on collision for sure, from the overhead videos and photos that are now on the web it looks like both trains were on the northern mainline track, the two locomotives I mention before in the foreground are on the industrial track.
Overhead “Drone?” Video of the wreck site
http://www.newschannel10.com/clip/12556787/raw-rescue-efforts-underway-for-3-trapped-in-train-collision
How very sad. Prayers for the crew members and their families and friends. Don’t know the cause of course of this tragedy but no doubt PTC will become part of the discussion, its a very complex tech and North American railroads are actually ahead of their peers overseas in installing this tech, more time may be needed, but there is no doubt its a worthwhile and needed life saving technology that should be fully installed sooner than later.
Wow now that’s a wreck! Ive been a conductor on a few large wrecks my self but wow!
From what I can tell from watch the video of the wreck from passing motorists, and comparing the video footage with Goggle Earth, the collision occurred about 400-600 ft west of the Farm to Market Rd 293 East grade crossing on the southeast side of Panhandle. About 50 ft east of the crossing there is a switch for an industrial siding that running parallel south of the two mainline tracks serves some perhaps agricultural concerns located between the railroad and Route 60.
It seems from what I have read online that there have been a few train crashes in recent years in or near this town, some caused by collisions with trucks at grade crossings.
Was PTC activated? What’s a SPAD incident?
ALL
What a tragedy!! My heart goes out to the missing crew member’s families and to the people who clean up this derailment. I saw my share of derailments in my 38 years. This ranks the the Motley, MN head-on.
Ed Burns
Retired NP-BN-BNSF from Minneapolis.
Was this a “head on collision” or did on train derail on one track and then was struck by a train moving in the opposite direction on the other mainline track? In the video one train is stop while the other is still moving, as its front piles up in the wreck. I note the two locomotives in front of the moving train, both are separated by some distance. Did the collision occur at an interlocking with one train crossing over between tracks? A collision a few years ago on CSX in the Mohawk Valley was a SPAD incident at a interlocking.
Overall, how completely horrifying!
This blockage of the Transcon is why the Raton pass route should never be closed and removed. BNSF would be at the mercy of competitor Union Pacific to ever get their freight trains through until wreckage is cleared and tracks are repaired.
Double Track CTC in panhandle texas.
Reported that one crew member, unidentified, jumped and was taken to an Amarillo hospital in “stable condition”.