WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board has announced it will hold a board meeting on July 23 to determine probable cause of the Feb. 4, 2018, collision of Amtrak and CSX Transportation trains near Cayce, S.C.
The engineer and conductor on the Amtrak train were killed, and more than 90 others on board required medical care, after the southbound Silver Star was sent off the mainline and into a stationary freight train. [See “NTSB: Misaligned switch directed ‘Silver Star’ into parked CSX auto rack train,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 4, 2018.] Signals were out of service at the time of the accident as positive train control equipment was installed
The accident led to an urgent safety recommendation from the NTSB, calling for the Federal Administration to issue an emergency order on procedures when signal suspensions are in effect.
The NTSB’s 9:30 a.m. meeting will be webcast. A link to the webcast will be available shortly before the meeting at this site.
On passenger trains, the conductor would normally be with the passengers and on board service crew, not in the locomotive where the point of impact occurred. Perhaps you meant fireman or ‘co-engineer’.
The train was operating in a signal suspension. So you revert to basic railroad 101 and your authority to operate is given through mandatory directives issued to the train and copied manually by the crew. The engineer cannot receive and copy mandatory directives while operating the locomotive. He can copy if he stops the train. The conductor was on the head end to copy mandatory directives from the dispatcher and to be able to OS the train to the dispatcher when directed. The CSX crew reported to the dispatcher that the switch lined and locked for the main.
Penelope; because a signal suspension was in effect at the time this accident occurred, the conductor WAS riding in the cab with the engineer.
OH SORRY – Delete my last post! Me bad! I thought I was reading about Tacoma Washington. Sorry Anna and Sorry Penelope, my apologies. I really screwed up. There was another article about NTSB about Washington state. I’m totally in the wrong here.
Penelope – Where does it say the conductor was in the locomotive cab???
Blog author – More than two people died.
Anna – I think you’re at the opposite end of the country in South Carolina.
What is there to say other than the turnout was misaligned and the dispatcher was not notified? Unfortunately, as is all too often the case when this sort of things happens, it cost lives.
The above comments are general in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn lawyer.