Amtrak Accident

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By Jon Hilkevitch and Ryan Haggerty, Tribune staff reporters Tribune staff reporters Jeremy Gorner, Dan Blake, Tina Shah, Azam Ahmed, Emma Graves Fitzsimmons and James Janega contributed to this repo

December 1, 2007



Shortly before an Amtrak train carrying almost 200 people rear-ended a stopped freight train in Chicago on Friday, a dispatcher ordered the passenger liner to slow down, prepare to switch tracks, then proceed with caution, according to accident experts involved in the investigation.

The Amtrak engineer followed at least the first two instructions. Then, a little more than a mile up the tracks, calamity struck.

Parked in the track was a 20-car Norfolk Southern freight train. Just minutes from its destination at Union Station, Amtrak train No. 371 from Grand Rapids, Mich., rounded a slight bend and then tried to brake, but there was not enough room.

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Passenger accounts Video
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Amtrak train accident Amtrak train accident Photos
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Location of crash Graphic

The train slammed into the parked freight cars, its wheels sliding beneath them. As passengers inside were hurled into seats in front of them, the body of the Amtrak engine began to climb, coming to rest atop a flatbed freight car and the shipping container it was carrying.

"He just ran right up the tail of the other train," said passenger Coert Vanderhill, 60, of Holland, Mich., who watched his wife get thrown to the floor.

The first firetruck arrived near 52nd Street and South Princeton Avenue after 11:30 a.m., said Chicago Fire Commissioner Raymond Orozco. It was quickly followed by another 39 department vehicles and crews, and then curious neighbors, and then cameras.

An empty grass lot beside the tracks was converted to a triage site, where paramedics swarmed over bloodied passengers. Firefighters helped passengers climb from open doorways of double-decker coaches, and led them through a hole cut in a fence. The passengers moved in a dazed stream to a nearby elementary school.

Handful kept overnight

Of the 187 passengers and five crew members, 71 were transported by ambulance and by chartered bus to a dozen area hospitals, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford. Hospital spokespeople said only a handful were expected to be held overnight.

In an investigation expected to take many months, a team headed by the National Transportation Safety Board will attempt to determine whether human error or a possible track-signal malfunction caused the crash.

Preliminary information shows that the Amtrak engineer complied with the speed restriction as his train crossed over onto the same track occupied by the Norfolk Southern freight train ahead. He slowed the Amtrak train to about 15 m.p.h. on a section of track near 63rd Street on the South Side that otherwise allows trains to travel up to 70 m.p.h. if the rails ahead are clear, the officials said, citing dispatch tapes played for investigators.

Freight awaited orders

About the same time, the freight train, which had been stopped waiting for signals to change, received permission to resume its trip to deliver cargo containers to a rail yard.

But before the freight train could get under way, the Amtrak train rounded the curve. The engineer used full emergency braking, but it was too late. The passenger train slammed into the freight train near 52nd Street.

At the time, both trains were being directed by a dispatcher in Michigan.

Among the injured were five Amtrak employees, according to a statement by the passenger railway Friday afternoon.

The most seriously hurt included the engineer and assistant engineer, said Ray Lang, Amtrak senior director of governmental affairs. Fire Department Battalion Chief Michael Gacki said a male and female Amtrak employee were cut from the locomotive, and were the only victims found there.

NTSB Vice Chairman Robert Sumwalt said two crew members remained hospitalized. Investigators will begin interviewing the crew Saturday, he said.

All afternoon, hospital emergency rooms were the scene of a long and difficult ordeal.

Dozens of the injured were taken by bus and ambulance to Stroger Hospital of Cook County with minor injuries. Among them was a young girl, crying and clinging to her father's waist as he held her blue and brown puffy jacket neatly folded over one arm.

Police officers unloaded passenger luggage from the chartered bus and hauled it into the hospital, where passengers then carried it with them as they filled out papers and circulated through the waiting room. Registered nurses hired by Amtrak visited each of the four hospitals that received patients, said Anita Richardson, one of the nurses sent to Stroger.

All at Stroger released

All of the injured passengers were later released, a Stroger spokesman said.

As patients were cleared to leave, many were taken to Union Station -- either to catch connecting trains, or to be directed to hotels by Amtrak employees.

About a dozen ended up in the Amtrak lounge Friday evening, where train officials provided cold sandwiches, chips and drinks. The number of people waiting changed throughout the night as eastbound trains were delayed or canceled by the crash investigation blocking the track.

Chartered buses took some passengers to Hammond and Michigan City, Ind., said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari.

Behind him, people sat on or beside their baggage near Amtrak's passenger services area, waiting to get out of Chicago.

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jhilkevitch@tribune.com

rhaggerty@tribune.com

[PerRock]

Gitta hand to those Tribune boys, they did a great story here. No sensationalism just the story.
It seems to me then that the Amtrak got the signal to diverge to an occupied track and run restricted speed with a train ahead. Evidently they failed the RESTRICTED SPEED test eh?
On the other hand the GRPress, in their usual uneducated guessing game, published accounts of the passengers who had no idea what was going on ahead..."I mean how do two trains run into each other!" Well it happens Bubba. Or the great line/question...why were two trains n the same track? That one begs a sarcastic answer that most of you already know. And then the great one..."at least we're safe tonite riding on a bus."
Yeah buses are safe out there on the highways arn't they? I thought a few hundred thousand passengers have ridden the Pere Marquette for years now with NO train related accidents or injuries. They last derailment was at Curtis Yard on the NS/EJ&E when a semi dump truck went thru the crossing in front of the PM and derailed it. Hardly was Amtrak at fault there.
Nuff 4 now.
Doc
P.S. I will assume that the GE unit was equipped with a forward facing camera? That should be interesting to watch eh?

I thought 15mpg was restricted.....

peter

[amtrak1007]

With footage like that, it is completely understandable how this accident could happen. Doesn't make it right, but does allow us to see exactly what lead up to the incident.

Restricted speed also includes this little caveat: MUST BE ABLE TO STOP WITHIN 1/2 OF THE CLEAR RANGE OF VISION... Like doc said, it seems like they didn't pass the exam this time.

[Racer]

I have no idea how something like this can happen! You have all these signals on a major line like this one, all the dispatchers and equipment. How can this train just all of the sudden hit the rear of another one; and by the looks of the video: it went through more-like a yard between all these moving trains on the surrounding tracks and then hitting the rear of another train? I can see that there is going to be lawsuits with NS or Amtrak about how that train was dispatched onto a blocked track like that. I just hope that the crew and the passengers are going to be alright. -Chris

[intocable83]

Unfortunately it takes accidents like this to work on ways to prevent it from happening again. its sad for the people involved but this accident will help future accidents like this from occurring less often.

[J T]

On the other hand the GRPress, in their usual uneducated guessing game, published accounts of the passengers who had no idea what was going on ahead..

It was just as entertaining to listen to the reporters on channel 8 news. One of the novice reporters called the locomotive an "engine car." ha

[PerRock]

I found it entertaining listening to how the different reporters pronounce "Norfolk Southern"

peter

[GTWTD3]

Even though I don't always agree with how Chicago West runs the railroad,get to know the chicago terminal. That's a highly congested piece of railroad, trains parked all over the place waiting to get into various yards. It's going to happen, Amtrak will have to get behind a lesser priority train because there is no where else for the train to go. From the sounds of it, the van train was starting to move west. If only it had started 5 minutes earlier.

[pudgy]

I have no idea how something like this can happen! You have all these signals on a major line like this one, all the dispatchers and equipment. How can this train just all of the sudden hit the rear of another one; and by the looks of the video: it went through more-like a yard between all these moving trains on the surrounding tracks and then hitting the rear of another train?

Like wkuhl said, this is a highly congested piece of track. Pretty much everything that runs on the NS from the east to Chicago goes through this area. This is a double, if not triple track main with a yard to the south. Amtrak and the Stack train it hit were on the #2 Main (correct me if im wrong) so they were in the correct place. As far as signals go, they are just pieces of equipment: Ever have your computer freeze? My point. Also, the signals are only as good as the crew that responds to them. Its very well possible that the engineer mistook a signal, its also possible that they obeyed the signal to the book, but the line of vision was obscurred by the numerous double stacks around. A precise investigation may never tell what happened. But all we can do is wait and see. My prayers are out with the crew, who from standard procedure are going to be fighting for their jobs...

[amtrak1007]

Train braked, officials say
NTSB says cause of wreck still unclear

By Monique Garcia and Emma Graves Fitzsimmons, Tribune staff reporters

December 2, 2007

An Amtrak train traveling about 40 m.p.h. applied its brakes for 9 seconds and skidded 400 to 500 feet before hitting a stopped freight train Friday, transportation officials said Saturday.

The South Side crash injured 60 people and heavily damaged the trains and tracks.

Federal investigators provided new details of the crash from information retrieved Saturday from the Amtrak train's "event recorder, " a device similar to an airplane's "black box," which measures speed, brake application and acceleration.

A team of investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board braved harsh weather as they began their inquiry into why the two trains were on the same track simultaneously, causing the late-morning crash near 51st Street and Shields Avenue.

All passengers and crew members who were treated for injuries have been released from area hospitals, said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari.

NTSB Vice Chairman Robert Sumwalt said officials were on a "fact-finding" mission Saturday to determine why the Amtrak train from Grand Rapids, Mich. -- minutes from its Union Station destination -- rear-ended the 20-car Norfolk Southern freight train that had stopped on the same tracks. The Amtrak train was traveling about 35 m.p.h. at the point of impact, officials said.

Sumwalt said the Amtrak train had slowed to 9 to 10 m.p.h. as it passed through a track intersection in Englewood, switching from one set of tracks to another to pass a standing train, according to information culled from the event recorder. After the Amtrak train passed, it began to accelerate to 40 m.p.h. The speed limit for a passenger train in that area is 79 m.p.h.

The train barely reached 40 m.p.h. when the engineer saw the freight train and "put the train into emergency breaking." The distance from the Englewood interlocking to the point of impact was 1.7 miles and took 4 minutes to travel.

About 9 seconds passed from the point where the engineer applied the Amtrak train's brakes to the point of impact, in which it rode up on the back of a freight train car.

Track signals were tested and appeared to be working, but officials will not know how they operated leading up to the crash until they recover the event recorder in the signals, Sumwalt said.

A police "blue light" surveillance camera provided 36 hours of video, but the camera's range did not show the signals, officials said.

"We don't know what caused this accident. So, therefore, it's hard to say what would have prevented it," Sumwalt said.

[J T]

A precise investigation may never tell what happened. But all we can do is wait and see.

Well, since the engineer lived, is it possible we'll hear the truth from him in the near future?

[Norm]

Well, since the engineer lived, is it possible we'll hear the truth from him in the near future?

Yes, it will be invaluable to the NTSB investigators to have his input and observations. Accident re-construction without input from competent observers is most difficult.

BTW, and just for information, the correct terminology for the "black box" in transport aircraft (read airline planes) is "Flight Data Recorder". It can record many many parameters of flight before an accident; far too many to mention here. Like the Event Recorder, it provides otherwise inaccessible information to the investigators.

[esprrfan]

The yard you see to the left of Amtrak is NS's 55th. The freight you see to the right is on #1 main, with Amtrak on #2. The Stack train looked like he was held at CP 518 waiting on the freight to clear so the stack train could get to Ashland yard.

To try and provide a little background on this section I'll try to help those who haven't seen it get a "feel".

Once you get the light at Englewood (CP 515 Metra Crossing) and cross the diamonds with you being on #2. You cross over the Dan Ryan to your left are 2 tracks #33, #34 (these get you in/out of 55th st) to your right is #1 main. You travel about a city block before making a 90 degree curve (ok as close as a train can get to 90, you get the idea).

Looking ahead you see 4 tracks 33, 34, M2(your on this), M1. Looking ahead a few blocks you see 55th st yard. So it's normal to see cars/engines up that way.

(My first time heading this way I'd of swore we had a train heading right at us!. The cond with me laughed and showed me how to follow my M2 rails as they curve)

Anyhow as you continue north on M2 and cross 55th st and pass the yard office the mains curve to the east about 30 degrees then turn back north as your now running around the 55th st yard.
At the other end of the yard you now curve back west about 30 degrees before turning north again. Continue on about a city block and you reached CP 518.

The end

CP 518 lights can be hard to see if the yard is pretty full with stacks. It's not uncommon for 1 train to be waiting at 518 and if he or your train is short and also headed to Ashland to take the restricting at Englewood. Everyone I've ran with we've been told to take the restricting we pretty much creep as you need to EXPECT to see the 1st guys marker somewhere along as your swinging out around 55.

Hope this helped provide a little prespective. I'm in no way commenting the actions/lack of, by the Amtrak crew. As for the video of the crash I suspect it was actually one of the NS's Police many cameras .

[J T]

Yes, it will be invaluable to the NTSB investigators to have his input and observations. Accident re-construction without input from competent observers is most difficult.

CP 518 lights can be hard to see if the yard is pretty full with stacks. It's not uncommon for 1 train to be waiting at 518 and if he or your train is short and also headed to Ashland to take the restricting at Englewood. Everyone I've ran with we've been told to take the restricting we pretty much creep as you need to EXPECT to see the 1st guys marker somewhere along as your swinging out around 55.

So the ABSOLUTE truth in this incident lies within the engineer, right? The question is, will that absolute truth ever be told?

[amtrak1007]

So the ABSOLUTE truth in this incident lies within the engineer, right? The question is, will that absolute truth ever be told?

MythBusters accident investigation will peg your analysis as "plausible". As for the "truth" the final NTSB report will be out in a few months.

[J T]

So the ABSOLUTE truth in this incident lies within the engineer, right? The question is, will that absolute truth ever be told?

MythBusters accident investigation will peg your analysis as "plausible". As for the "truth" the final NTSB report will be out in a few months.

Will it really take that long for the engineer to step up to the mic and say "Ok, here's what happened..."??

[Norm]

So the ABSOLUTE truth in this incident lies within the engineer, right? The question is, will that absolute truth ever be told?

Can't say that for certain, and as with aviation accidents I hate to speculate. His input, however, will surely be of value to the investigators.

[Norm]

SORRY BOUT THAT. THE SERVER WENT ON STRIKE FOR A FEW MOMENTS.

I guess I pushed it's button a few too many times.

[J T]

The problem with aviation accidents is most of the time the pilots are killed, so there is no one left but a flight recorder to somewhat tell the tale of what happened. Here we have a train crash, the engineer lived and all speculation can be put to rest by him simply telling his story, right? (yes, I do I realize there still needs to be an investigation, as it's part of procedure.)

Not your fault, Norm. The server is glitching. Did you see this window?

[Norm]

Three times. Hence my triplicate post.