Federal Railroad Administration, Office of Safety Headquarters Assigned Accident Investigation Report HQ-2007-21, Amtrak/Canadian National Illinois Central (ATK/CNIC), Sledge, Mississippi, April 23, 2007

摘要

On April 23, 2007, at 7:50 a.m. Central Standard Time (CST), a southbound Amtrak (ATK) Passenger Train 59 collided with a pickup truck pulling a fuel trailer at a private farm crossing. The accident occurred near Sledge, Mississippi (MS) on the Canadian National (CN) main line at milepost (MP) 55.4 on the Central Division, Yazoo Subdivision. This private road crossing is protected by crossbucks and the Department of Transportation (DOT) No. is 300586M. The pickup truck towing a trailer was traveling west on a private road and the driver was the only occupant of the vehicle. The trailer contained a plastic tank loaded with 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel. ATK Train 59 consisted of one locomotive and six passenger cars. It was traveling southbound at 81 miles per hour (mph) when the locomotive struck the center of the trailer, immediately igniting the diesel fuel. The driver of the pickup truck was taken to Quitman County Hospital where he was examined and released. The Lambert Fire Department extinguished the fire and their hazardous material personnel treated the accident scene. When ATK Train 59 was released, it continued south to Lambert, MS where passengers were offloaded onto charter buses. There were three crew members, six on board service employees, and 69 passengers on the train, and there were no injuries to the train crew or passengers. There was $85,000 of damage to railroad equipment, but no damage to the track structure. There were no evacuations as a result of the grade crossing accident. At the time of the accident, it was daylight and clear with a temperature of 70 degrees. The probable cause of this accident was the failure of the motor vehicle driver to yield to the train at the road crossing.