Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 25, 1993 TAG: 9309250195
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: MOBILE, ALA. LENGTH: Medium
Their recovery brought the death toll to 47 in the worst wreck in Amtrak's 22-year history. Most of the 163 survivors had no serious injuries.
Coast Guard salvage crews lashed a huge sling to the rear of the new AMD-103 locomotive and pulled it from the muck with a crane that can lift 600 tons and is mounted on a barge. The engine was placed on its side on a barge.
Firefighters removed caked mud from the cab of the locomotive, which appeared to be burned but not crushed, although it had hurtled into Bayou Canot at about 70 mph after it derailed. The red-white-and-blue Amtrak stripes were clearly visible on the nose.
A firefighter then climbed into the cab with body bags, and a blue-gloved Marine Reserve mortuary team stood by with somber officials of Amtrak and CSX Transportation, which owns the track and bridge. At that point, officials signaled that a Coast Guard boat full of reporters should leave the scene.
"It's a huge relief to us to get [the locomotive] out of there, to get the bodies of our crew members out and back to their families," Amtrak spokesman Howard Robertson said.
Coast Guard Lt. Bob Foster, the salvage coordinator, said the delicate operation took five hours.
Two locomotives and four passenger cars remained in the water, and authorities said those and the lead locomotive were so damaged that they will be scrapped. National Transportation Safety Board investigators said they want to review recorders, like airplanes' "black box" tapes, from each locomotive.
John A. Hammerschmidt, the safety board member in charge, said investigators have been unable to interview the four-man crew of the towboat MV Mauvilla, which was at the crash scene with a six-barge tow about the time of the crash, about 2:50 a.m. CDT.
Mounting circumstantial evidence suggests that the barges broke away from the MV Mauvilla after its captain, Andrew Stabler, became disoriented and lost in heavy fog in Bayou Canot, which is off the main Mobile River channel and is not navigable. One of the barges bore a crease and concrete markings, indicating that it had nudged the bridge and possibly knocked it out of line, officials said.
A spokesman for the Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co. acknowledged Friday that "there is increasing evidence that our tow was in the vicinity of the bridge."
He said that the vessel encountered heavy fog and "due to the fog, the vessel traveled a short distance up the Bayou Canot while attempting to tie off to the bank until the fog lifted."
Investigators are trying to resolve conflicting times involving the accident and radio calls from the towboat. The first handwritten log of radio communications from the towboat to the Coast Guard came at 3:06 a.m. That was 29 minutes after a CSX dispatcher's computer in Jacksonville, Fla., recorded the train's passage at about 70 mph through a trackside signal 1 3/4 miles from the bridge.
Shortly after the wreck, train crew members noticed the towboat about 150 feet away, and the assistant conductor hopped onto the boat when it reached the bridge, Hammerschmidt said. The towboat participated in the rescue, removing many survivors from the water.
Hammerschmidt also moved to clarify confusion about the railroad signal system. Contrary to published reports, he said, the system is not a main focus of the investigation.
He also disputed reports that the bridge bore special sensors to detect problems. The track "just had standardized signal equipment," he said.
According to railroad representatives, the signal system in use on that line consists of signals mounted on trackside poles. These signals, partly controlled from the CSX central dispatching facility in Jacksonville, pass information to crews through combinations of red, yellow and green lights.
When a train is between signals, or a rail is broken, signals leading to that point automatically turn red. Signals are controlled by a low-level electric current in the track.
Officials said the signal system is not designed to detect misaligned rails and that the signal would remain green, even if a bridge fell and rails were dangling in the air, because the current would not be broken.
Hammerschmidt said Warrior & Gulf conducted breath and urine tests of the four towboat crew members at noon Wednesday, nine hours after the wreck. Results of the urine test for drugs are not yet available. The breath test showed negative for alcohol, but he said the nine-hour delay in testing could have influenced that result.
Keywords:
FATALITY INFOLINE
by CNB