(The following story by Kevin Cary appeared on the Charlotte Observer website on February 5, 2009.)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A tractor-trailer broke into three pieces when the Amtrak Piedmont passenger train hit it Wednesday morning in Harrisburg, scattering bricks and other debris and shutting down the train for a day.
No one was seriously injured, authorities said, and although the wreck put the locomotive out of service, Amtrak expects to resume service on the passenger line today.
At about 10 a.m., the J.B. Hunt Trucking Co. tractor-trailer – carrying bricks and other building materials – stopped on the tracks on Pharr Mill Road, according to Sgt. Measimer of the Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office, who declined to give his first name.
The driver got out and ran from the truck moments before the southbound train hit it.
The train dragged the truck cab about 100 yards down the track. The trailer’s wheels and their framework, which separated from the cargo section and wrapped around the side of the train, continued another few feet beyond that.
The cargo section was left at the crossing, spilling its contents.
Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black said crew members reported that the truck did not stop before entering the crossing.
The Piedmont, which runs each morning from Raleigh to Charlotte and returns each evening, was carrying 10 passengers, Black said. Most were taken by taxi to Charlotte, but some were picked up by friends in Harrisburg.
The northbound trip was canceled Wednesday evening; Amtrak replaced it with a charter bus.
Measimer said officials were not sure why the truck stopped on the tracks.
He said investigators had spoken with the driver and the train engineer, but he declined to say what was discussed. He also would not say whether the crossing arms had come down before the truck entered the crossing.
Measimer said sheriff’s investigators and Amtrak would continue to investigate the crash for several more days.
According to the Federal Railroad Administration, 94percent of vehicle-train collisions happen because of risky driver behavior or poor judgment. But collisions between trains and motor vehicles have declined significantly. Incidents nationwide have dropped 80percent in the past 30 years, to 2,746 in 2007.
The number of fatalities has also dropped, from a high of 1,115 in 1976 to 335 in 2007. The trend is similar over a more recent period: Train-vehicle accidents declined 10 percent from 2005 to 2007, and fatalities decreased by 7 percent in that time.
“The improvements in technology with grade crossings, signage and the education about railroad crossings have helped that,” Black said. “The tragic thing is the avoidability of these accidents. You have to use extreme care and caution at a railroad crossing.”
Black said Amtrak has yet to determine how badly the train was damaged, but it was inoperable Wednesday after the wreck.
Measimer said the speed of the train at impact had not been determined, but said investigators can learn that within a few days from a black box aboard, like those on commercial aircraft.
It was at least the fourth accident involving a tractor-trailer and a train in less than three years in the Charlotte region. But as in the previous collisions, no one was seriously injured.
Amtrak is expected to resume service in both directions today on the Piedmont, Black said, because it has a spare locomotive in Charlotte.