Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 23, 1993 TAG: 9309230127
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Alabama crash, which killed more than 40 passengers, was not only the worst accident in Amtrak's 22-year history; it also nearly doubled the railroad's all-time cumulative death count of 48.
The accident killed more people all at once than have many U.S. plane crashes. And in doing so, it may have canceled one reason many rail passengers take the train: a fear of flying.
"This is the realization of our worst nightmare, to have a train at night on a bridge that goes into deep water, and the cars going into the water have passengers in them," said Amtrak spokesman Clifford Black.
Regardless of what the cause turns out to be, the sheer number of deaths - and the images of submerged train cars and retrieved corpses lined up on a barge - is certain to have an impact on passengers' psyches and on the industry.
The last rail accident that came close in terms of deaths was in January 1987, when 15 Amtrak passengers were killed in a collision near Baltimore. When the accident was blamed on a crew member smoking marijuana, the result was mandatory drug testing throughout federal government, which rapidly spread to private industry.
Depending on the cause of this crash, it could have an equally dramatic effect on transportation policy.
Wednesday's accident comes at a time when rail travel has been growing in popularity. Each year, Amtrak carries about 22 million passengers nationwide. But more telling is the sharp increase in the number of passenger miles on the Amtrak system - up from 4.2 billion in 1982 to 5.2 billion in 1987. Last year, passengers rode 6.1 billion miles.
Passengers are booking the trains for longer and longer trips every year. In fact, the Sunset Limited involved in Wednesday's accident, which travels between Los Angeles and Miami, had just been added in April to accommodate travelers who like going coast to coast on the ground rather than in the air.
"The fact is, the fatality rates for flying and for rail are not really that far apart," said Scott Leonard of the National Association for Railroad Passengers in Washington. "This [accident] will be a spike for many years."
Last year, there were 691 deaths on inter-city and rapid rail systems in the United States, up slightly from 689 in 1991. By comparison, 1,103 people died in plane crashes last year, 874 of them in small private planes rather than commercial flights.
But train and plane deaths pale by comparison with the numbers of people killed on the road: 39,200 last year, down from 41,462 in 1991. Mile for mile, riding in a car is far more dangerous than riding in a train or a plane, statistics show.
A number of recent train accidents trouble safety experts, who worry about aging track and bridges and the ever-present danger of human error.
In July 1991, Amtrak's Silver Star en route from Tampa, Fla., to New York derailed in Lugoff, S.C. Eight passengers were killed and 75 were hurt, 12 seriously. Last week, the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigated the crash, announced that it was caused by a poorly maintained switch on the track.
CSX Rail Transport of Jacksonville, Fla., owns and is responsible for that track, as it is for the track at the site of Wednesday's Alabama accident.
Part of the bridge outside Mobile collapsed either before the crash or as a result of the impact, sending three engines and four cars into 16-foot-deep water. The bridge, a single-track span built in 1909, once was a swing bridge but was locked into a fixed route several years ago. CSX said that the bridge underwent a comprehensive inspection on Feb. 10 and that the track was inspected as recently as Sunday.
Federal and state officials, as well as CSX investigators, went to the scene.
In December 1991, an Amtrak train derailed in Palatka, Fla., injuring 52 passengers, six seriously. The NTSB concluded that the crew was driving the train too fast on a curve.
In Broward County, Fla., in March, six motorists were killed when Amtrak's Silver Star slammed into a Hess gasoline truck stuck in traffic at a railroad crossing. The NTSB has not officially ruled in the fiery collision, but it is clear that the truck driver violated company policy by stopping on the tracks.
But with such spectacular crashes rarely in the headlines, the nation's rail system hasn't prompted the sort of public outcry for better safety systems as have major plane crashes.
This time, the public outcry may come.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB