WASHINGTON — Defective track likely caused the crash of an Amtrak passenger train in Iowa last year that killed one person and injured 78 others, investigators said on Tuesday.
A wire service reports that the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board found that undetected internal defects probably caused the track to break as the California Zephyr rolled over it at 50 mph (80 kph), well below the speed limit.
Eleven of the train’s 16 cars and two locomotives derailed shortly before midnight local time on March 17, 2001, in the town of Nodaway, which is about 75 miles (120 km) southwest of Des Moines.
The Zephyr was headed from Chicago to Oakland, California, with more than 250 passengers and crew. The lone fatality was a 69-year-old passenger.
Investigators analyzed a 16-foot (4.8-metre) section of rail that had been installed the previous month to replace a defective section of track, and found that it, too, was flawed.
The track cited in the derailment had been inspected visually by track owner Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (NYSE:BNI – news) prior to the accident. An ultrasound test, which might have detected the flaws, was not required.
The safety board recommended that federal regulators require railroads to conduct ultrasound or other appropriate inspections to ensure that rail used to replace defective track was free of internal flaws.