Odom, the towboat pilot, was named as a defendant in more than 90 lawsuits after the crash but never faced criminal charges. I see the fire. But it was so foggy you really couldn't see the water.". Another passenger, Alfredo Lamedo, 59, of Miami, was in a car that did not drop into the bayou. 1993 Amtrak crash survivor relives each new one. (AP/KWCH) - Several lawsuits have been filed following the Amtrak train collision and derailment in rural Missouri that killed four people and injured up to 150 others. Flights in and out of the region have surged as airlines that previously flew over Russia are now passing through or flying over central Asia to get to Asia and the Middle East. This article is more than 7 years old. HELENA, Mont. Twenty. Amtrak crash victims in Philadelphia include midshipman Justin Zemser, Jim Gaines of AP, Abid Gilani of Wells Fargo and Rachel Jacobs of ApprenNet. But things were happening so fast, he said, there was no time to get scared.. Rochelle Cook . Three locomotives pulling eight cars left Mobile at 1:30 a.m. heading toward Birmingham across a swampy area. The Missouri State Highway Patrol has identified the four people who were killed Monday when an Amtrak train struck a dump truck and derailed near Mendon, including a pair of sisters from Kansas. Chancey doesn't recall seeing either of her parents again, possibly because of water rushing into the car and inky darkness -- the only light came from burning diesel fuel that spilled from the locomotives. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/train-derails-in-alabama-swamp. A 1990 derailment and collision with a commuter train in Massachusetts caused 453 injuries but no deaths. All serious incidents involving Amtrak are investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB); incidents with suspected criminal activity (notably a 1995 wreck in Arizona) are also investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The train derailed on a curve while leaving. Sept 24, 1993, 11:00pm PST SHARE SHARE CREWS RECOVER LAST 3 VICTIMS OF AMTRAK'S WORST DISASTER Flipboard The last three victims of Amtrak's worst disaster were recovered Friday, raising the death toll to 47 as investigators puzzled over conflicting time logs tracking the Sunset Limited into a foggy bayou. He placed most of his emphasis upon the barges. Authorities said they did not expect to complete a list of the dead before today. The special trip by Blakeley State Park's Delta Explorer provided a rare opportunity to look back at a tragedy in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. Coast Guard and police divers said they could see only six inches ahead. The last three victims of Amtrak's worst disaster were recovered Friday, raising the death toll to 47 as investigators puzzled over conflicting time logs tracking the Sunset Limited into a foggy bayou. By now, divers were going through submerged portions of the railroad cars hand over hand. An Amtrak train headed to Miami derails near Mobile, Alabama, killing 47 people on September 22, 1993. WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. President Joe Biden is once again telling the story about his trip with an Amtrak conductor back when he . (Lawrence Specker/LSpecker@AL.com ), Since his brother died in the 1993 crash of the Sunset Limited, Tom Russ of Foley had never visited the scene of the accident. CHANCEY, Mary Jane, 45, Orange Park, Fla. CHANCEY, Geary Lee, 45, Orange Park, Fla. CHILDS, Marianne, 36, Las Vegas CRENSHAW, Lilly Ruth, 63, Tampa, Fla. DIENER, Robert J., 54, San Diego DIXON, Patrick, 78, Apopka, Fla. DIXON, Doris, Apopka, Fla. FURANO, Patricia, 57, Winter Haven, Fla. GALVAN, Sean Scott, 3 months, Bainbridge, Ga. GALVAN, Sheila, 21, Bainbridge, Ga. HALL, Billy Rex, 47, Birmingham, Ala. (engineer) HAMPTON, Penny, 47, Hammond, Ind. Lawyer tells TV network that Brandon Bostian, 32, cannot remember moment of derailment in . And all of us bailed out., Watts said he and his wife Betty, 58, along with several others held onto floating railroad ties. But he saw that it offered a way to escape. It had smashed through a window, he said, and was keeping the car from submerging completely. Shown: Tom Russ, at right, looks on as the scene of his brother's death comes into sight. Trestle Is Focus. Tom Russ, brother of Sunset Limited crash victim Ernie Russ, speaks on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. ", The medical units worked from the deck of a barge provided by the Scott Paper Company, which owns the tug Scott Pride. At 2:45 a.m., the Mauvilla struck a rail bridge. Details on the bent track were included in hundreds of pages of [] Amtrak crash victims being identified as driver's name emerges. The train derailed due to flooding of the tracks. Did you radio for help? Dopheide shouted. CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, Calif. . The train derailed due to excessive speed on a curve and collided with an. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. He said the water swirled like a whirlpool in a kitchen sink. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (each updated 1/26/2023). The engineer, who was found to have been smoking marijuana, received a five-year prison sentence. A tugboat appeared, shining a high-intensity beam of light on the wreckage. The train struck track maintenance equipment. The train collided with a stopped CSX freight train. MENDON, Mo. The train struck a delivery truck at the grade crossing. A locomotive erupted into flames, burning its crew. He could not swim. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. My wife and I didnt get to the same railroad tie, but we kept within eyesight., Every time he looked at his wife, he said, she seemed farther away. All three locomotives and four of the eight cars on the train were off the bridge and in the bayou. [2] Odom believed that he was still on the Mobile River and had identified the bridge in the radar as another tug boat. The train struck a gasoline tanker at a grade crossing. (Lawrence Specker/LSpecker@AL.com ), The 1993 crash of the Sunset Limited inspired Mobile-area songwriter Charles Cort to write a song titled "A Cross for Lorna," in honor of Lorna Main, a traveler from Scotland who was among those killed. Steve Day, left, and the park's director of excursions, Mike Bunn, explained the scenario leading up to the derailment. He didn't immediately see a lot of injuries, he said. None of the 85 people onboard were injured, Aubert said.. He climbed through the window and out onto the timber. "Whoever it was was being consumed by the water at that time," he recalled. 2 on the CSXT Big Bayou Canot Bridge Accident Report", "Barge Pilot Blamed in Fatal Amtrak Wreck", "No Criminal Liability Is Found in Amtrak Bayou Derailment", "25 years later: Sunset Limited crash survivor relives each new Amtrak accident", Mobile Press-Register 200th Anniversary: Sunset Limited train wreck memories not diminished by passing years, Aerial and Boat Views of Amtrak Train Derailment, Mobile, Alabama (1993), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Big_Bayou_Canot_rail_accident&oldid=1141804853, Barge collision with bridge / wrong design, Eleven-year-old wheelchair user Andrea Chancey, the "miracle child" with, Ken Ivory and Michael Dopheide, honored by the, This page was last edited on 26 February 2023, at 22:15. Times staff writers Richard E. Meyer and Nora Zamichow in Los Angeles and David G. Savage in Washington, as well as researcher Edith Stanley in Saraland, Ala., contributed to this story. Miles away, Willie C. Odom steered a towboat as it pushed barges up a river that was getting foggier by the mile. The Philadelphia crash in which the train's engineer pushed its speed to 106 mph on a curve rated for 50 mph. Published: Sep. 22, 2022 at 4:42 AM PDT. The train collided with a work train due to an improperly set switch. Odom did not respond to an interview request. The train derailed due to sabotage of the rails. The accident, the deadliest in Amtrak's history, was caused by a negligent towboat. He said he was the last to leave. The victims were confirmed to be 72-year-old Maria Nieves of Antioch, 51-year-old Mercedes Regalado of Dixon and 41-year-old Julia Mondragon of Dixon, according to the Contra Costa County Office. The collision forced the unsecured end of the bridge span approximately 3 feet (1m) out of alignment and severely kinked the track. Willie Odeon, another employee of Warrior and Gulf, was driving the boat, but did not know how to use the radar system. They said most of the victims were found inside the train cars. Amtrak said it was the worst train wreck in its history. In the dark of night, three travelers advanced inexorably toward tragedy. He said the company couldn't confirm a barge hit the bridge. Flames spread from one of the three locomotives, Dopheide said, and people around him could not find emergency exits. Dopheide was suddenly aware of the silence. Some passengers told of seemingly interminable waits for rescuers and of wandering along the track looking for help from crew members who never appeared. Among the first rescuers on the scene were the crews of the tugboats Scott Pride and Mauvilla. routinely investigated such accidents under Federal train wreck statutes, which make it a Federal crime to sabotage or damage a train in interstate commerce. Transportation Secretary Federico F. Pena, who flew to the disaster scene, said the transportation safety board was investigating the possibility of a barge hitting the trestle. Shortly before 3 a.m. Wednesday, it approached the trestle over Bayou Canot about 10 miles north of Mobile. Others climbed out of the train. Passengers were taken to the Crown Sterling Suites hotel after the crash, where an Amtrak official, Gary Mauck, told them the fire . Tom Russ said his brother was 43 and making a familiarization run on the Sunset Limited, which was to become his regular route the next weekend. The flames engulfed nine vehicles waiting for the train to pass the crossing, killing the truck driver, three people in a van and two in cars. Deaths and serious injuries in Amtrak accidents are uncommon, but not unheard of. The bayou is home to snakes and alligators, some say bears as well. The accident, one of the worst on American rails since World War II and the deadliest in Amtrak's 23-year history, occurred about 3 A.M., when the Sunset Limited from Los Angeles was crossing Big Bayou Canot at 70 miles per hour on its way to Miami with 189 passengers and a crew of 17. On Thursday's anniversary, he visited the scene to drop a cross in the waters of Bayou Canot in her memory. After helping her out a window, he said, he climbed out the window and swam for what remained of the trestle, where he hung on for about an hour, watching the engines burn 40 to 50 feet away. The pilot, Andrew Stabler, earlier was interviewed by the FBI. He said that on that night in 1993, an emergency call sent him to Saraland, where he joined officers heading out by boat. The train derailed due to defective track. "You could smell the smoke from the fires burning in the engine cars and see ash falling from the sky. For his part, Paiz said he helped other passengers out through a window on the lower side of his car. Ivory, who was honored by the Coast Guard with another passenger, Michael Dopheide, for his life-saving efforts that night, also struggled with the aftermath. The train struck a pickup truck at a grade crossing, killing all ten occupants of the truck. On the other side of the trestle was the third engine, which had pulled the train; it, too, was on its side in the mud, charred and mangled. Five other incidents have caused ten or more deaths: a 1987 collision with freight locomotives in Maryland, a 1971 derailment in Illinois, a 1996 collision with a commuter train in Maryland, a 1999 grade crossing accident in Illinois, and a 1977 grade crossing accident in Florida. [1] To date, it is both the deadliest train wreck in Amtrak's history and the worst rail disaster in the United States since the 1958 Newark Bay rail accident in which 48 people died. Still near the crash site, the Mauvilla and its crew helped pull people from the water. If not for this delay, the Sunset Limited would have passed over the Big Bayou Canot bridge twenty minutes before the bridge was hit by the barge. The train derailed due to a track defect. Low tide brought a fresh realization: We realized there was another car down there, he said. Suddenly, those three and more than 200 other people were caught up in what remains the deadliest accident in Amtrak history, the derailment of the Los Angeles-to-Miami Sunset Limited in a south. The divers lifted bodies onto a barge. Three people died when their car was struck by an Amtrak train in Brentwood Sunday. The lead locomotive embedded itself nose-first into the canal bank and the other two locomotives, together with the baggage car, sleeping car and two of the six passenger cars, plunged into the water. WALKS, George, 56, West Palm Beach, Fla. WILLIAMS, Julia, 22, Britain. (AP) An Amtrak passenger train traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago struck a dump truck Monday in a remote area of Missouri, killing three people and injuring dozens more as rail cars tumbled off the tracks and landed on their sides, officials said. TRAIN CRASH", "Stockton Train Crash Kills 3, Injures Dozens", "Amtrak, Family Settle Over Fatal Collision", "Man Gets 17 1/2-year Term In 1992 Amtrak Derailment", "Investigators piece together Nevada Amtrak crash", "Sheriff's office: At least 3 killed in Amtrak derailment", "NTSB Investigation of Amtrak Southwest Chief Derailment Under Way, BNSF Track Opens, Lawsuits Filed", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_accidents_on_Amtrak&oldid=1140653481. The train derailed due to a sabotaged switch. Two troops (Troop 73 and Troop 12) consisting of 16 boys (ages 13 to 17) and 8 leaders were on board the Chicago-bound Amtrak train that derailed in Missouri on June 27, 2022. "Everybody just kind of floated together and went out the back of the car. Immediately prior to the accident, a barge being pushed by the towboat Mauvilla (owned and operated by Warrior and Gulf Navigation of Chickasaw, Alabama) had made a wrong turn on the Mobile River and entered the Big Bayou Canot, an un-navigable channel of water crossed by a CSX Transportation rail bridge. (AP Photo/Mark Foley, File). One of those barges has a big dent in it, said special agent Chuck Archer in Mobile, Ala. The National Transportation Safety Board sought to interview the pilot and three crew members of a tugboat that had been pushing six barges, one of which officials say hit the bridge in fog shortly before the train wreck. March 17, 1993 Amtrak Silver Star hits gasoline tanker. The train derailed due to improperly installed track. That work could be finished Saturday, according to CSX Transportation Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla., the rail company that owns the track. See the article in its original context from. One lady was holding onto someones belt.. The train derailed at a crossover due to an improperly designed signal system. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Suddenly, those three and more than 200 other people were caught up in what remains the deadliest accident in Amtrak history, the derailment of the Los Angeles-to-Miami Sunset Limited in a south. Then he noticed a piece of timber. The train derailed due to spreading of the rail. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. An hour earlier, a 132-car CSX freight train with three locomotives had crossed the trestle without mishap. Nearly 25 years later, the survivors remember that night vividly: "I smell the oil. The other two engines and three cars have yet to be recovered. Buy newspaper front pages, posters and more. A Georgia couple celebrating their 50th anniversary was among those killed when the train derailed. They grabbed wooden debris to stay afloat until more help arrived. The three locomotives and the first four cars of the train plunged into the water. BNSF owns the railroad tracks used by Amtrak when a Southwest Chief train traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago collided with a pickup truck that was blocking an intersection near Mendon, Missouri. Those who did not drown were put in even more danger when a fire broke out. After midnight on Sept. 22, 1993, the tugboat Maubila made a wrong turn in heavy fog and hit a bridge over Bayou Canot. Five other incidents have caused ten or more deaths: a 1987 collision with freight locomotives in Maryland, a 1971 derailment in Illinois, a 1996 collision with a commuter train in Maryland, a 1999 grade crossing accident in Illinois, and a 1977 grade crossing accident in Florida. . (Lawrence Specker/LSpecker@AL.com), The speed of the Sunset Limited's engines carried them to the eastern edge of the Bayou Canot crossing, in foreground, where they plunged into mud. Im ending my life here. , A woman with a 3-year-old boy shouted from across the aisle. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. [3], The bridge was struck by the Mauvilla at about 2:45a.m. It shifted with the current and the weight inside, said Mobile Police Chief Harold Johnson. An episode of the National Geographic Channel documentary series Seconds From Disaster examined the accident. Agents were interviewing the tugboat crew, he said. He said concrete had been broken away from the foundation of the trestle and that pieces of concrete were found on the barge. Riders, many of them asleep when the train derailed at 2:47 a.m. local time, screamed and scrambled through the wreckage. It was not known how fast the Sunset Limited was rolling. The trestle speed limit for passenger trains is 70 m.p.h. KANSAS CITY, Mo. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. The bridge was only seven to 12 feet above the water (depending on the tides) and was in place so that trains could pass through the swamps. Watts said he and his wife were in the water for about 30 minutes before they reached safety. In Washington, Amtrak officials said the death toll could equal or exceed all previous fatalities in the 23- year history of the long-distance passenger line. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. Charles W. Archer, the special agent in charge of the Mobile office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said the accident occurred minutes after the trestle was struck by a line of barges being pushed up the bayou, one of a score of narrow tributaries of the Mobile River. The train derailed due to a damaged bridge. Just ahead of those two coaches, the charred hulks of two of the train's engines lay on their sides, ground into the bayou's muddy bank. Federal investigators are seeking the cause of an Amtrak train derailment near a switch on tracks in the middle. Following is a complete list of the 47 people who are known to have died Wednesday in the crash of an Amtrak train near Mobile, Ala. Traveling at 72 mph (116 kph), the lead locomotive reached the bridge and jumped the track at the spot where the rails were bent by the barge collision. The crash occurred at around 1 . Buy newspaper front pages, posters and more. , was in a car that did not drop into the water. `` leading up to the derailment 2:45. To flooding of the rail company that owns the track, was named as a defendant in than. Disaster examined the accident later, the rail and of wandering along track! 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