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Amtrak engineer blamed for Chicago crash
Topic Started: April 3 2009, 02:18 PM (64 Views)
Gandalf
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CHICAGO - An Amtrak engineer was to blame for a crash in 2007 involving a speeding passenger train and a stopped freight train on Chicago's South Side that injured 71 people, federal safety officials ruled Tuesday (March 31), according to the Chicago Tribune.

The engineer of the Amtrak train failed to correctly heed a signal warning him to slow down and alerting him to the Norfolk Southern freight train stopped ahead, the National Transportation Safety Board found.

The NTSB faulted Amtrak for failing to make sure the engineer was trained to understand the different signals used by railroads on the routes over which he operated. Also contributing to the crash was a relief engineer's failure to communicate immediately to the engineer that he had misread the signal, the board concluded at a hearing in Washington.

The Amtrak train was headed to Union Station from Grand Rapids, Mich. It was traveling 25 miles an hour faster than the warning signal allowed on Nov. 30, 2007, when it plowed into the rear of the freight train.

Amtrak said it had worked closely with the NTSB during the investigation. "We will continue to improve supervision, competency testing, training and evaluation for Amtrak engineers, as recommended by the NTSB," said spokesman Marc Magliari. He said both engineers are no longer employed at Amtrak.

In its report, the safety board said the Amtrak engineer made "a significant error" when he misinterpreted the meaning of a track signal.

The "red over yellow" signal should have warned the crew to slow to 15 m.p.h. and to be prepared to stop for any trains or obstructions ahead.

But the engineer misinterpreted the signal as a "slow approach," which would have let him operate at a maximum speed of 30 m.p.h. while being prepared to stop at the next signal, the report said.

(This item appeared in the Tribune April 1, 2009.)
April 1, 2009
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