(The Associated Press circulated the following article on June 8.)
PICO RIVERA, Calif. — A broken joint connecting two rails caused a 2004 freight train derailment that forced the evacuation of about 100 people and caused $2.7 million in damage, federal regulators concluded.
The National Transportation Safety Board said in a report adopted May 31 that several track inspections before the derailment hadn’t found problems.
”In some instances, the inspections were done more frequently than required,” the report found. ”Nevertheless, the inspections failed to detect the developing problems and prevent the ultimate failure.”
The report said evidence indicated ”slowly growing fatigue cracks in both joint bars and that at least part of each fatigue crack had been visible on the lower outer portion of the bar for some time before failure.”
No serious injuries were reported after about a dozen locomotives and cars traveling about 57 mph slammed into and damaged at least four homes Oct. 16 — with one boxcar going through a roof — and scattered debris in suburban back yards. An estimated 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel also spilled, the agency said.
John Bromley, a spokesman for Omaha-based Union Pacific, said the company re-inspected all joint bars afterward and found a few defective ones, but nothing ”systemic.”
”We certainly focused on bars and because of that, it’ll make a safer railroad,” Bromley said.
He said the railroad had also talked to suppliers about providing stronger joints, instructed track inspectors on how to spot tiny cracks that could indicate problems, and increased ultrasound inspections of the joints to every 90 days instead of about three times a year.
In 2003, 13 people were injured and several homes were damaged when a Union Pacific train jumped the track in Commerce, Calif., about 10 miles from Pico Rivera.