(The Associated Press circulated the following story by Adrian Sainz on August 20.)
MIAMI — Federal investigators needed five months to pin down exactly how many people were on an Amtrak Auto Train involved in a fatal crash in Crescent City last year, information that should have been accurately available at the scene, a National Transportation Safety Board report said.
The initial count of 468 passengers and crew provided by Amtrak after the April 18, 2002, accident was off by 22 people, the report said. The final number of 446 passengers and crew also didn’t match those on three separate lists given to the NTSB by Amtrak after the crash, the report said.
A complete and accurate count available immediately after an accident would help emergency workers locate, evaluate and treat people, and avoid leaving passengers behind or wasting time looking for those who were never there, according to the report released Monday.
The crash in Crescent City killed four and seriously injured 36.
Amtrak acknowledged the discrepancy but said the frequent stops in some train travel makes it difficult to have a record of everyone on a specific train, even those on long-distance trips with reserved passenger lists.
“We’re not aware of any system or technology that exists short of polling the entire population of the train after every station stop and requiring identification each time for accomplishing this,” Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black said Tuesday.
Developing a list for an Auto Train should be easier because it does not have intermediate passenger stops, Black said.