NTSB releases preliminary report on Virginia train crash involving Congress members

WTKR ^ | 21 Feb 2018 | Staff

[csvset]

CROZET, Va. – A train carrying dozens of Republican members of Congress, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, to their legislative retreat in West Virginia hit a truck on January 31, 2017 leaving one person dead.

Wednesday the National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary investigation into the crash.

They said around 11:15 a.m., a 2018 Freightliner truck equipped with a McNeilus Truck & Manufacturing refuse body was traveling southbound on Lanetown Road in Albemarle County near Crozet, Virginia.

The refuse truck, operated by Time Disposal LLC, had a 30-year-old driver and two passengers as it drove towards a highway–railroad grade crossing, later identified. The crossing is active and includes advance warning signs and pavement markings on its approach, the National Transportation Safety Board said. The crossing is also equipped with crossbuck signs, warning lights, bells and gates.

As the truck neared the highway a westbound Congressional Special Amtrak train was approaching the highway–railroad grade crossing.

The NTSB said the train’s lead locomotive was equipped with a forward-facing track image camera. Data that was taken from the camera showed that as the crossing came into view, the gates were down and the truck was on the grade crossing. Witnesses to the crash reported that the refuse truck entered the crossing after the gates were down.

The train’s recorder showed the Amtrak train was traveling about 61 mph when the engineer applied emergency braking. The train struck the left rear of the refuse truck, causing the truck to rotate counterclockwise and then collide with a railroad signal next to the tracks. The refuse body separated from the truck, and the truck’s two passengers were ejected, according to the NTSB.

As a result of the crash, one passenger in the truck died. The other truck passenger had serious injuries and the driver of the truck had minor injuries. Three Amtrak crewmembers and three train passengers sustained minor injuries, the NTSB said.

NTSB investigators and Albemarle County Police Department officials and the Federal Bureau of Investigation documented the crash scene and the characteristics of the crossing, the train and the refuse truck. The track and operational characteristics of the crossing signals were also examined and documented.

The crash remains under investigation

[dljordan]

“That’s nice. Tell us something we dont know like what were the names of the 3 who were in the truck to start.”

Jose, Pedro and Luis.

[ltc8k6]

“Benny Layne, who owns the land at Marymart Farm where the shredded truck came to rest, told the AP he’d seen the crossing arms stay down for hours when no train was coming, and that he’d seen someone working on the signal earlier this week.

Timothy Griffith, who lives in nearby Grayrock, says during the four years he’s lived there, “I remember one occasion when the arms were down for no reason.””

http://www.c-ville.com/time-disposal-hit-hard-crozet-train-crash/#.Wo3YmedOmUk

[dfwgator]

Speaking of idiot drivers, the 11foot8 bridge got two of them the other day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvL4ONNnJ44

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK7roTklGyg

These videos give me life, LOL!

[ltc8k6]

I believe there were trees in the way, so the photo is a composite that shows everything, which was not possible by just taking a photo.

[ltc8k6]

http://www.c-ville.com/time-disposal-hit-hard-crozet-train-crash/#.Wo3YmedOmUk

A couple of the names are in this article.

[RealVirginia]

Yes, it is still possible that the truck could have been sabotaged by bad guys that didn’t care if they killed the innocent people in the truck.

It just doesn’t seem like an efficient way for the bad guys to kill.

I’m not giving Q the point for this one but still following his posts! :)

[ltc8k6]

That’s exactly what happened, imo.

The gates were often down for no reason, so people began to just ignore them and drive around the gates.

This driver was unlucky. This time the warning was real.

I blame this on the owner of the crossing, which is probably not Amtrak.

[SubMareener]

I think I am beginning to see what happened. Here is a picture of the trailing engine just WEST of the crossing.

The whole rest of the train is to the left in the picture. The engineer's emergency braking slowed the train down enough so that the trash truck missed being on the center of the tracks. The lead engine clipped the back of the trash container with enough force to strip it from the truck bed and spin them both around. Counterclockwise seems correct. The gates do not appear to be damaged, so the truck had to drive on the wrong side of the road to get around the gates.

This is not an "accident" in any sense of the word.

[robroys woman]

Yeah. It could happen. :)

[csvset]

Here are all three names of the people on the truck

Hospital: Condition of victim in Crozet train crash improving

The third victim of the Crozet train collision last month is improving. According to a news release from the University of Virginia Medical Center, Dennis Eddy, who was taken to the hospital in critical condition on Jan. 31, is now in good condition. Eddy and two other Time Disposal employees were in a garbage truck that was struck by an Amtrak train. Christopher Foley, 28, of Louisa County, died at the scene.

The truck’s driver, identified by the company as Dana Naylor, was released from the hospital Feb. 5.

GoFundMe accounts have been set up for all three employees. Foley’s account is at gofundme.com/foley-amtrak-truck-victim; Eddy’s account is gofundme.com/eddy-traintruck-victim-survivor; and Naylor’s is gofundme.com/naylor-trucktrain-victim-survivor.

National Transportation and Safety Board investigators said they don’t expect a full report and determination of the crash’s cause for at least a year.

[MarMema]

My husband says the pics showed the truck was about to dump the back part of it. Some level was up or something...I know nothing about this stuff.

He thinks maybe they planned to leave the dump part of the truck and get out but screwed it up.

[Wuli]

Actually that is all the NTSB needed to say, and there was no good reason it took them this long to say it - Garbage truck driver crossed onto the tracks at the crossing after the gates were down; end of story.

And everyone can also forget all the “right wing” conspiracy theories about the Dims planning the mishap because the train was carrying so many GOP members of Congress.

[TheNext]

National March for TRAIN CONTROL.

[TheNext]

True. The occupants may have been planning to dump the refuse or the trailer on the tracks and get away. That would have derailed the train.

The fake NTSB should have listed the political background of the occupants. Negligence.

[generally]

The number of people in the truck has nothing to do with it.

9/11 had 4-5 terrorists on each plane.

Various Arkancides involved entire planeloads of people for the purpose of getting rid of just one or two.

[BobL]

At some point they WILL succeed.

[Tamatoa]

Right. Have you heard the train horn when approaching an intersection crossing? Doesn’t matter if you have your windows up or radio on you can hear it from miles away.

[Olog-hai]

Most gated US crossings used to have four gates. They went away from that when they were fully automated.

I am partial to gates that move horizontally and close off the railroad to trespassers when open for road traffic, but I don’t know of any of this type that got automated; these were/are operated by manually turning a wheel in the signal tower. (This is in Clonsilla, in northern Dublin in Ireland.)

[Steven W.]

Exactly!

[themidnightskulker]

A shovel ready infrastructure project!!! Git R Done!