The National Transportation Safety Board issued a preliminary report on July 21st for its ongoing investigation of the collision of a train and dump truck near Mendon on June 27th. The incident involved an Amtrak train, known as the Southwest Chief, derailing after colliding with the truck at a highway railroad grade crossing.
Three train passengers and the truck driver died. The truck driver was previously identified as 54-year-old Billy Barton II of Brookfield. The train passengers who died were identified as 56-year-old Kim Holsapple and 58-year-old Rochelle Cook of Desoto, Kansas, and 82-year-old Binh Pham of Kansas City.
Multiple passengers and crew members were taken to hospitals with injuries. The report says the train was carrying 270 passengers and 12 crew members. Amtrak and BNSF Railway estimated damage to be about $4 million.
Amtrak train 4 traveled from Los Angeles, California to Chicago, Illinois, and consisted of two locomotives and eight rail cars. The collision with the fully-loaded dump truck happened on the BNSF Marceline Subdivision near a rural passive highway railroad grade crossing on County Road 113, also known as Porsche Prairie Avenue. The crossing had crossbucks and a stop sign on the right side of Porsche Prairie Avenue.
The NTSB report says the dump truck approached the crossing from the south. It was previously reported the truck was owned and operated by MS Contracting of Brookfield. It was transporting aggregate to an Army Corp of Engineers project north of the crossing.
All train locomotives and rail cars derailed in the crash. Seven of the rail cars came to rest on their sides. The truck had heavy damage and came to rest in a ditch northeast of the rail crossing adjacent to the road.
BNSF authorizes train movements in the area with a traffic control system. A BNSF train dispatcher at the dispatch center in Fort Worth, Texas coordinates train movements. Train movements on the Marceline Subdivision are governed by operating rules, special instructions, timetable instructions, and signal indications of the traffic control system. They are supplemented with an overlaid positive train control system. The PTC system was enabled and operating at the time of the collision.
The maximum allowable speed on that section of track is 90 miles per hour for passenger trains. A preliminary review of the data from the leading locomotive’s event recorder showed the train was going 89 miles per hour when its emergency brakes were activated.
It is noted the weather was clear at the time of the accident, and there was no precipitation.
NTSB investigators conducted highway railroad grade crossing inspections and highway vehicle inspections and reviewed data from the lead locomotive’s forward-facing image recorder and event recorder. They also obtained the dump truck’s engine control module and conducted interviews.
Future investigative activity will focus on highway railroad grade crossing design specifications, rail car design, survival factors, and passenger rail car crashworthiness.
The investigation has included the Federal Railroad Administration; Amtrak; BNSF; the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers—Transportation Division; the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen; the Missouri State Highway Patrol; and the Missouri Department of Transportation.
