(The following story by Ana Radelat appeared on the Clarion-Ledger website on May 19.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Federal investigators are nearly finished with their probe of a fatal Amtrak derailment near Flora last year after interviewing dozens of passengers, emergency responders and railroad workers.
The probe has focused partly on repairs that were made to a length of track on Jan. 29, 2004, according to National Transportation Safety Board documents. The track is owned by CN, formerly Canadian National.
The report noted the wrong size replacement rail was installed and some rail anchors were missing.
Jim Kvedaras, CN’s senior manager of U.S. public and government affairs, said company officials would have no comment before reviewing the NTSB report.
The derailment of the northbound City of New Orleans on April 6, 2004, just months after the track repair, killed Clara Downs, 68, of Chicago. Fifty-nine others were taken to Jackson-area hospitals.
Two emergency responders also were slightly injured, including a Madison County law enforcement officer who slammed his hand in the door of his car in his rush to respond to the scene, the NTSB said.
According to a survey of passengers by the NTSB, eight people aboard the train reported hearing a member of the crew announcing “rough track” ahead just before the entire nine-car train derailed at 6:33 p.m.
The first, second and third passenger cars behind the baggage car fell on their sides over a 20-foot-high railroad trestle, the agency’s report said.
The NTSB and the Federal Railroad Administration have spent more than a year interviewing people about the crash and collecting other information. A final report, which will include the NTSB’s conclusions and recommendations, is expected in July.
NTSB investigators said a “rail plug” or replacement length of rail that was 13 feet, 2 inches, was installed on one side of the tracks near the location of the derailment.
The piece was slightly longer than the rail it replaced, requiring CN welder William Devine to fill out a “noncompliance” repair report, according to NTSB documents.
“If you’re adding or taking out rail it’s very important to mark that down,” Devine told investigators.
He also said the difference in rail lengths required another adjustment before the weather turned warm and the rail expanded.
Devine also said he was instructed by CN that “in the locations where you have added rail, try to come back and get them all back before May, when it starts getting warm.” It was not clear from the NTSB documents exactly what he meant.
Investigators also found that, at some point before the accident, 10 wooden crossties had been installed to replace steel ties near the derailment site and that some of the anchors holding down the rails were missing.
Billy Frazure, the CN track foreman, told investigators “the anchor pattern was fair — it wasn’t the greatest.”
He said the track’s condition in the “Yazoo District” that includes the derailment area had improved since CN acquired the track. But he also said it was difficult to walk the rail to inspect the track.
“I’m usually sent into a primary trouble spot, and I go in there and fix that trouble spot, and get out of Dodge because there’s usually a train chasing me out of there,” he said.