A railroad official blamed slick tracks for a train accident Thursday morning that left six people with serious injuries about 3 miles southeast of West Fork.
There were 44 passengers and crew members aboard the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad passenger train that was struck by a single locomotive about 10:30 a.m. Most of the passengers and crewmen walked away with only bumps and bruises.
U.S. 71 was closed near the tracks for about two hours as emergency responders from Fayetteville, West Fork, Washington County, Greenland, Boston Mountain and other organizations gathered on the stretch of highway to access the heavily wooded Boston Mountains crash site.
"Scenic, but hard to access," said John Luther, director of Washington County Emergency Management, as trucks loaded with all-terrain vehicles arrived at the scene and a helicopter buzzed overhead. "Thankfully, there was no entrapments."
The National Transportation Safety Board announced Thursday afternoon that an investigative team will be sent to the crash site.
The passenger train was traveling south on a regularly scheduled day-long excursion from Springdale to Van Buren when it stalled on the tracks. The train typically consists of a locomotive and three passenger cars.
"We had a passenger train that was sitting still waiting on a helper locomotive because they were stuck," Ron Sparks, chief of railroad police and safety manager, said in a phone interview. He blamed fall leaves for making the tracks too slick for the trains to properly traverse. "The [rescue] locomotive came around the curve [from the south] and hit the passenger train because they misjudged where they were."
After the impact, the passenger train was still on the tracks and had little visible damage, but Sparks said a couple of wheels on the helper locomotive derailed.
Sparks said the leaf problem "is not unusual this time of year." He added, "It happens."
Passengers were evacuated in groups of five or 10, walking slowly or moved out on ATVs. Some wore neck braces, and several were lying on gurneys. All appeared to be conscious and calm, and many snapped pictures with their cellphones as they were driven away from the scene.
All of the passengers had been removed from the trains by about noon, Luther said, and U.S. 71 was reopened soon after.
Several people, including six who had the most serious injuries, were taken to area hospitals, Luther and other officials said. A sheriff's office bus transported many of them from the scene.
Five patients received trauma care at Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville, hospital spokesman Gina Maddox said. Several others were treated there for less serious injuries, and all were listed in stable condition, Maddox said Thursday.
Northwest Health System in Springdale treated one person whose injuries were listed as serious and at least a dozen who had minor injuries, said hospital spokesman Pat Driscoll.
Luther praised all of the agencies involved for working quickly and together.
"It's a system of people and resources that makes it work," he said. "It was completely a joint effort."
Based in Springdale, Arkansas & Missouri Railroad operates a 150-mile line from Monett, Mo., to Fort Smith, according to its website, amrailroad.com.
The company provides freight service and seasonal excursion passenger service between Springdale and Van Buren/Fort Smith.
At the train depot in Springdale, Dave Hammer said he and his wife drove from Illinois to meet friends and planned to ride the excursion train to Van Buren today. They learned Thursday that today's trip would be canceled.
"Fortunately for us, we weren't on it today," he said Thursday.
Thursday's accident was about 13 miles north of where three Arkansas & Missouri Railroad locomotives derailed Oct. 10 in a remote area in north Crawford County after rain washed out about 300 feet of tracks.
NW News on 10/17/2014