JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Faulty track maintenance by Jacksonville’s CSX Transportation may have left loose rails where an Amtrak Auto Train derailed last month in Crescent City, killing four people, the Florida Times-Union reported.
Yesterday, however, a National Transportation Safety Board spokesman said it’s too early to lay blame for the crash and that it should be months before official findings are issued.
CSXT, which owns and maintains the tracks, had been having trouble in anchoring the tracks to the ground before the April 18 accident, NTSB investigator Russ Quimby told The News-Journal of Daytona Beach earlier this week.
The company had difficulties maintaining enough gravel beneath the track on the curve where the derailment happened, Quimby said, and that could have led to a track misalignment.
Amtrak engineers said they saw a track misalignment and pulled emergency brakes just before the crash.
Quimby said CSXT had done work on the section four times since October, but the track was not re-anchored, or configured to minimize the amount of movement in the rails.
Quimby, who is based in Washington, D.C., could not be contacted through the agency. However, NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said the investigation is still ongoing and any comments about findings would be premature.
“Track is an issue and has been an issue, it’s nothing new,” Holloway said. “However, we have not conclusively stated any cause of this accident. It’s too early in the investigation to establish a cause.”
Holloway wouldn’t comment on Quimby’s statement. He said investigators have left the accident scene and continue to study possible causes of the derailment in Washington, and they’re expecting investigation results to be released in 9 to 12 months.
CSXT spokeswoman Kathy Burns declined to comment because of the pending investigation.
NTSB investigations generally take many months, sometimes years, to conclude. In March, the board released its findings on a January 2000 derailment of CSXT train near Bloomington, Md., that killed a 15-year-old boy.
CSXT’s track maintenance program has been monitored by the Federal Railroad Administration for the last two years after the railroad was criticized for poor and potentially unsafe track conditions. A safety compliance agreement between the FRA and the railroad ended two weeks ago because the Railroad Administration was satisfied with the programs CSXT has implemented to improve its track conditions, FRA spokesman Warren Flatau said.
Four people were killed and more than 150 injured in the April 18 derailment of Amtrak’s Auto Train. The 40-car train was going 56 mph in a 60-mph zone while traveling from Sanford to Lorton, Va. The train carried 418 passengers and 34 crew members, as well as 200 automobiles.
Hallandale Beach attorney Brian Rodier is leading a team of law firms that filed a class-action suit the day after the accident that names CSXT, Amtrak and others as defendants. He said he expects to be certified to represent the plaintiffs within 45 days. He wouldn’t say how many victims have joined the lawsuit.
Rodier said one of the accident victims is still hospitalized and that if the track maintenance connection proves true, then plaintiffs will have grounds for compensation.
“It’s a major event as far as injuries,” he said.