Death toll rises to six in Amtrak collision (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – At least six people were killed when a tractor-trailer rig barreled through railroad gates and into an Amtrak train early Friday in Nevada, authorities said on Saturday.

The Churchill County Sheriff's Office confirmed the six fatalities in a written statement released late on Saturday night. Authorities said dozens more were injured, at least one critically.

Meanwhile, a National Transportation Safety Board spokesman said the driver of the truck slammed on his brakes just 320 feet before the rail crossing, apparently failing to see signs, flashing lights and closed signal arms.

"The data so far indicates that all signals and gates were operating properly (and) there was excellent visibility of the track," said NTSB member Earl Weener.

The truck, leading a convoy of three tractor-trailer rigs, was traveling at such a high rate of speed that it embedded itself in the side of the train, Weener said.

Among those killed in the collision at a crossing of U.S. Route 95 near the town of Lovelock, about 70 miles east of Reno, were the truck driver and train conductor, the Nevada Highway Patrol has said..

Authorities said earlier on Saturday they expect to pull more bodies from the twisted wreckage of the train, but a search was proceeding slowly because the burned-out train cars were considered dangerously unstable.

"We know that people have seen bodies, but we can't get to them in the wreckage," Nevada Highway Patrol spokesman Dan Lopez said. "The biggest thing right now is the safety of the workers."

It was not immediately clear if the confirmed fatalities included the bodies seen inside the wreckage. Weener said emergency responders had reported "multiple fatalities" but could not be more specific.

'FATALITIES TO PASSENGERS'

"Preliminary reports are that there have been fatalities to passengers, an Amtrak train crew member and the operator of the truck," Amtrak said in a written statement.

A spokeswoman for the passenger rail line, partly owned by the U.S. government, declined to elaborate on the statement.

Weener did not offer an explanation for the driver's apparent failure to notice the signs or lights, saying the train's engineer saw the collision clearly and verified that the signals were working correctly.

"We will not be determining a probable cause of this accident while on scene, nor will we be speculating," Weener said, adding that a team of 21 investigators expected to remain at the accident site for seven to 10 days.

He said the other two trucks in the convoy took action to stop in time, but the lead vehicle did not.

The fiery crash sent a plume of black smoke billowing into the air over the scene and forced closure of the tracks and Route 95 in both directions.

Survivors were taken to local hospitals.

A spokeswoman for Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno said the hospital received nine people from the accident, including one who remained in critical condition on Saturday.

A second patient was listed in serious condition and a third in fair condition. Six others had been discharged.

Another 60 people were taken to Banner Churchill Community Hospital in Fallon, about 30 miles away, spokeswoman Aimee Fulk told Reuters.

The 10 most seriously hurt patients were admitted and treated in the hospital's emergency room, she said, while the remaining 50 were treated for lesser injuries and released.

Fulk said she had no further information on the condition of the patients in the emergency room but was not aware of any life-threatening injuries among them.

Passengers who were not injured, some of whom spent the night in local shelters, were taken to their destinations by bus.

The westbound California Zephyr was en route from Chicago to Emeryville, California with 204 passengers and 14 crew members on board when it was hit.

(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Todd Eastham)

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Drivers, engineer watched Amtrak crash unfold (AP)

SPARKS, Nev. – Two truck drivers and a train engineer watched helplessly as a semitrailer skidded the length of a football field before it smashed through crossing gates and into two double-decker cars of an Amtrak train at a Nevada highway crossing.

The drivers were part of a three-truck convoy that saw the gates come down and the warning lights go off as the California Zephyr approached, National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener said Saturday.

They stopped, but the driver of the big rig in the lead did not, he said. "They were waiting for it to come to a stop."

The Churchill County Sheriff's office said Saturday that six people had died in the crash late Friday morning. Authorities earlier said the truck's driver was among the dead, and a transportation union confirmed that number included one of its members, the train's conductor.

Weener said 28 people were unaccounted for, but that the figure was "spongy" because some passengers may have gotten off the train before the crash or walked away from the scene without checking with officials.

"This is not quite like you are used to when you get on an airplane. They record exactly who gets on, and what seat they sit in," he said. "On a train, you can get off without necessarily being tracked."

About 20 people were injured, and the United Transportation Union said on its website that the train's assistant conductor was among those seriously hurt. Weener said a passenger manifest counted 210 on board, but Amtrak spokeswoman Christina Leeds said 204 passengers and 14 crew members were on the train at the time.

"We are going to be working in the next several days to get more of that (unaccounted) number down the best we can," Weener said.

At the time of the collision, Weener said visibility was excellent and that the crossing gates and warning lights were working.

The train's engineer saw the truck approaching the crossing about 70 miles east of Reno and realized the collision was inevitable, he said.

The engineer slammed on the emergency brakes, but the train, which was going about 78 mph in an 80-mph zone, traveled another half mile before it finally stopped, he said. The engineer watched the truck smash into two of the train's 10 cars through the rearview mirror.

"He recalled the event clearly. He saw the truck approaching the train," Weener said. "At some point, he knew the impact was imminent. He in fact watched the collision in a rearview mirror. He was hoping the train was not going to derail."

NTSB investigators were returning to the crash site on Sunday, partly to search for additional possible victims, as well as to try to rectify discrepancies in the passenger manifest.

The California Zephyr from Chicago was about 300 miles east of its destination in Emeryville, Calif., when the truck hit the two train cars, which burst into flames. Earlier witness accounts said the truck driver did not attempt to stop before it drove through the crossing, but Weener said the driver did try to stop because the truck skidded about 320 feet before it crashed.

The speed of the truck hasn't been determined, but Weener said it was going "at a considerable speed" because the impact left the tractor embedded in one of the train cars.

Weener said the truck driver who died was a Nevada man in his mid-40s. The UTU identified the dead conductor as Laurette Lee, 68, of South Lake Tahoe, Calif. Churchill County authorities said they were working to confirm victims' identities and notify family members.

Weener said a team of 18 NTSB investigators were at the scene and expected to remain there for at least a week. NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said they had not finished going through the wreckage yet, and Weener said they had yet to review video data taken from the train.

"We will not be determining a probable cause of this accident while we are here," Weener said.

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AP writers Martin Griffith in Reno and Amanda Kwan in Phoenix contributed to this report.

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Feds look into truck driver killed in Amtrak crash (AP)

RENO, Nev. – Authorities plan to look into the driving and medical records of the semitrailer driver who died when the truck slammed into an Amtrak train, killing a train crew member and injuring dozens of passengers.

Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said they also will look at autopsy results to determine whether the driver had consumed any drugs around the time of the collision Friday.

The big rig plowed into the California-bound train at a crossing in a rural area about 70 miles east of Reno. Knudson said federal investigators would make sure that railroad lights and crossing gates were working at the time.

Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Dan Lopez said the gates and warning lights were working. Witnesses told authorities that the truck didn't seem to attempt to stop at the crossing when it crashed through the gate. The driver was the sole occupant of the semi, which was hauling two empty gravel trailers.

About 20 people aboard the train were taken to hospitals in Reno and Fallon, but Lopez didn't know the extent of their injuries. Dan Davis, spokesman for Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno, said two people were in critical condition, four were in serious condition and three were in fair condition.

"We're seeing the typical kinds of injuries you see in an accident like this — blunt force trauma, fractures, abrasions, lacerations and internal organ injuries," Davis told The Associated Press.

Amiee Fulk, spokeswoman for Banner Churchill Community Hospital in Fallon, said more than 10 people were treated in its emergency room, but she was unsure whether any were admitted into the facility.

Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari in Oakland, Calif., said most of the injuries were not life-threatening. He said 204 passengers and 14 crew members were aboard the California Zephyr en route from Chicago to Emeryville, Calif., which is about 300 miles west of the crash site.

Amtrak said the other passengers were taken to schools for food and shelter, and that they would make the rest of the trip west on buses.

Passenger Jim Bickley told Sacramento, Calif., television station KXTV that the tractor-trailer hit the fourth car on the train. Another passenger, Abel Ortiz, 42, of San Jose, Calif., said he was sleeping on the side of the car that was struck.

"As I looked up, I saw the train being ripped up. It created an opening in our car," Ortiz told the Lahontan Valley News & Fallon Eagle Standard newspaper in Fallon. "I saw the flames come over the windows of the side, like a quick flash of flames. Then smoked filled up everything. There was some screaming."

His 13-year-old son, Aaron, said the flames startled him.

"I thought I was sleeping but I said this isn't a dream," he said. "I was scared. On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the scariest), this was an 11."

Monte Mentry, 75, of Sebastopol, Calif., who boarded the train in Salt Lake City, said "the train rocked, and I was bouncing up and down in the seat (after the collision. Everything in the luggage rack came down."

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval visited with passengers in Fallon.

"Our hearts go out to the victims and their families," the governor said in a statement. "(My wife) Kathleen and I will keep them in our thoughts and prayers."

The collision occurred on tracks owned by Union Pacific Railroad. It was uncertain how the accident would affect train traffic on the railroad's main east-west line across Nevada, railroad spokesman Aaron Hunter said. About 20 to 25 freight trains use the line daily.

"It's too early to know how long this line will be blocked by this incident," Hunter said. "We have an alternative route to the north, but it takes longer to reach destinations on that route."

The collision was on a portion of tracks that cross U.S. 95 about three miles south of I-80 in the heart of the Forty-Mile Desert. That was considered one of the most difficult sections of the entire overland journey by California-bound, covered-wagon pioneers in the 19th century.

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Associated Press correspondent Scott Sonner contributed to this report from Reno.

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