SPRINGDALE — The locomotive that hit a stalled passenger train and injured dozens of people Thursday was moving several miles per hour faster than it should have been under a dispatcher’s directions, a federal official said Friday.
Mark Rosekind, one of the National Transportation Safety Board’s five members, said the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad locomotive appeared to have been traveling at 25 mph. An interview with the company’s dispatcher indicated it should have been moving at 20 mph or less for safety reasons, Rosekind said.
“The [safety board’s] mission is not just to determine what happened in an accident but the why,” he said during a brief news conference at the Holiday Inn in Springdale, stressing his information was preliminary and the investigation would continue. “The intent is to prevent these kind of accidents from happening in the future.”
The board’s investigators arrived Thursday after a head-on crash between the two vehicles. The agency investigates accidents and makes safety recommendations but has no enforcement power.
A passenger train carrying more than 40 people from Springdale to Van Buren stalled on the tracks a few miles southeast of West Fork about 10 a.m. Thursday. An engine sent from the south to help ended up ramming the stationary train at 10:25 a.m. At least 49 people were taken to three Northwest Arkansas hospitals, including six with serious injuries, according to spokesmen for the hospitals.
Ron Sparks, the railroad’s chief of police and safety manager, blamed the accident on fallen leaves slicking the tracks and said Thursday that the driver of the helping locomotive came around a curve without realizing how close the stalled train was. The aiding driver was among the most seriously injured, officials have said.
The passenger train stalled more than once, Rosekind added. Investigators are trying to figure out why it stalled and exactly how often. “Black rail,” or rails slicked by the oils in leaves, is one of the factors that could have caused the stall, he said. Rosekind said the investigation wouldn’t establish the accident’s probable cause for several months.
Interviews and other data seemed to show that the aiding engineer was braking when he crashed at 25 mph and could have been traveling about 28 mph, Rosekind said.
Sparks and Randy Campbell, the railroad’s superintendent of operations, didn’t respond to calls to their Springdale office and cellphones Friday seeking comment. Rosekind said the trains had been removed from the tracks, but it was unclear where they were being kept and if the track had opened for freight.
Two damaged locomotives were spotted at 5:30 p.m. Friday moving north on the tracks along Gregg Avenue in Fayetteville.
Local, state and federal officials haven’t provided a total number of passengers or crew members on the two trains.
Three patients continued to receive care at Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville and one at Springdale’s Northwest Medical Center, spokesmen said Friday. Forty-five others were treated for minor injuries and released from those hospitals and Fayetteville’s Physicians Specialty Hospital.
“People were just banged up for the most part,” said Rachelle Younce, the specialty hospital’s spokesman, adding that 21 people were taken there and released by Thursday afternoon. The worst injury was a broken ankle, she said.