(The Houston Chronicle posted the following article on its website on September 17.)
HOUSTON — Law enforcement officials are continuing to investigate a Thursday train wreck in San Jacinto County that killed a Union Pacific crew member.
Officials of the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Department said late Friday that they could not release the man’s name, because the wreck is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Lt. Leonard Johnson of the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Department said the FBI is still investigating the case.
But FBI spokesman Al Tribble said the agency has completed its preliminary investigation into the accident, and determined that “there was no terrorism nexus.”
Tribble said, however, that officials of the railroad had asked the federal agency not to release the name of the man killed.
Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said the railroad is not releasing the man’s name, at the request of his family.
After the FBI’s initial probe about whether terrorism is or was a factor in a train wreck, the investigation is turned back over to local authorities, Tribble said.
“Once we determine there was no terrorism, then we back off,” Tribble said. “Now it’s up to the local police and sheriff’s department.”
The wreck happened about 12:15 a.m. Thursday in Shepherd when a Houston-bound Union Pacific train struck a standing train on the same track.
The moving train was traveling from Pine Bluff, Ark., to Houston when it was mistakenly guided onto a side track, causing it to hit the standing Union Pacific train.