Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 26, 1993 TAG: 9309260070
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT DVORCHAK ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: MOBILE, ALA. LENGTH: Long
The Sunset Limited rumbled out of the station at 2:33 a.m., 33 minutes behind schedule, at about the time a towboat pushing six barges groped its way through fog shrouding the Mobile River delta.
The journeys of the train and boat fatefully intersected minutes later in the middle of the night Wednesday in a watery wilderness at the site of Amtrak's deadliest crash.
The Sunset Limited, leaving the city and its industrial suburbs behind it, built its speed to 70 mph as it cruised north and turned east to cross a bridge over Bayou Canot, one of many waterways that feed into the Mobile River.
Less than an hour before, a three-engine, 132-car freight train had crossed the same span, built in 1909 of wood, steel and concrete. On a normal day, 15 to 20 trains cross the remote bayou, inhabited by alligators, water moccasins, catfish, bass and egrets.
As travelers dozed in their reclining Superliner seats, the Sunset Limited had green lights at 2:48 a.m. from a signal post 1.77 miles from the bridge.
About 90 seconds later, the train was a death trap.
The 120-ton first locomotive, a new model that had been in service for just 15 days, plunged off the bridge, spearing into the muck at the bottom of the bayou. Its three crewmen died.
Two other engines and four cars, including two Superliner coaches, tumbled off the bridge. With the midsection of the bridge gone, one passenger coach dangled over the edge with a lounge car, dining car and sleeping car behind it.
Spilled diesel fuel from the second locomotive exploded in a fireball.
Forty-seven of the 210 people aboard the train died.
From the dining car, the conductor radioed crewman Michael Vinet of Kenner, La., in the leading engine. "Mike! Mike! Mike!" he shouted. There was no reply.
Also on the dining car was an assistant conductor, whose name has not been released, who had his portable radio on a frequency monitored by CSX Transportation Inc., which owns the track. "Mayday. Mayday. Mayday," he said in a transmission picked up by the CSX yardmaster in Mobile.
The assistant conductor told investigators he moved toward the front of the train. Seeing smoke and fire ahead, he worked his way back and yelled to the passengers: "I need absolute quiet. We need to work this like a school fire drill."
Then he saw a towboat 150 to 200 yards downstream, scanning the murky water with its spotlight.
Andrew Stabler was piloting the MV Mauvilla, nudging six barges lashed three abreast north up the Mobile River. He was more than the length of a football field behind the front end of his tow. The barges were filled with coal, coke and wood chips.
The boat's owner, Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co., originally said Stabler inadvertently entered the Bayou Canot, which is not open to barge traffic. But Friday, it said he had maneuvered to tie up inside the bayou until the fog lifted.
Stabler, 46, raised the Coast Guard on an emergency channel. Although the National Transportation Safety Board put the time of the accident at 2:50 a.m., the Coast Guard logged this call from Stabler at 3:06 a.m. NTSB chief investigator Russ Gober said Friday that such time differences are "quite common in accident investigations."
"Mayday. Mayday. I've lost my tow. There's too much fog. Don't know exact location. Just around Twelve Mile Island, around the cut," Stabler said, indicating a position on the Mobile River.
"Vessel hailing `Mayday.' How many people on board, and are you in immediate danger?" the duty officer replied.
"Negative. Don't quite know what happened. Just saw the heel of my tow disappear. We're right under the bridge at 14 mile in Sara Bayou. We have four people on board. There's a lot of fog. I don't have time to talk to you. Let me go see what is going on. I'll get right back with you. Out."
Within moments, Stabler radioed back. This call was logged at 3:18.
"Coast Guard, this is Mauvilla. It's real bad here. There's a train that ran off the track into the water, and there's lots of people that need help. And there's a fire. I'm going to try to help some of them, and I'll get back to you."
Federal officials said one of the barges struck the bridge, perhaps weakening its supports or knocking the track out of line. The bridge was not lighted and had no reflectors.
"It is clear the barge did hit the bridge," said Transportation Secretary Federico Pena.
"The fact is he was lost," said Coast Guard Capt. Michael Perkins.
According to Coast Guard records, Stabler had no prior accidents or violations. He received his seaman's license in 1983 and a license to work on vessels over 100 gross tons in 1987.
The towboat fished 17 survivors out of the fuel-covered water. But an Amtrak mechanic told the NTSB it took the boat crew 15 minutes to tie off their barges on a bank before beginning rescue efforts. The boat and barges have been impounded by the FBI.
Forensic experts took paint samples from the barges and scrapes found on the trestle. They are also comparing concrete chips found on the barges with chunks missing from the bridge.
by CNB