(The Associated Press circulated the following article on November 14.)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The two crew members who died in last week’s fatal train derailment in the Sierra Nevada were identified Monday.
Wade Hanstad, 32, of Montello, Nev., and Joe Vosquez, 24, of Hondo, Texas, were employees of South Carolina-based train operator Harsco Track Technologies, according to the Placer County sheriff’s office.
The maintenance train derailed Thursday heading down a steep grade east of Sacramento. It flipped off the tracks at a curve, spilling thousands of gallons of fuel and sparking a fire.
Frantic efforts to slow the train failed, the eight surviving crew members told investigators.
Hanstad was partially pinned by a rail car, and Vosquez’s body was found inside a burned car, Sheriff Edward Bonner said in a statement.
Both were believed to have been in a rail car near the back of the train when it went off the tracks and may have been trying to apply an emergency braking system, the statement said.
A report on what caused the crash isn’t likely for about a year, federal officials said.