NTSB RELEASES FACTUAL INFORMATION ON FATAL FREIGHT TRAIN COLLISION IN IOWA

[NTSB Press Releases <NTSBPressReleases@xxxxxxxx>]

Title: NTSB RELEASES FACTUAL INFORMATION ON FATAL FREIGHT TRAIN COLLISION IN IOWA

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                       NTSB ADVISORY

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National Transportation Safety Board

Washington, DC 20594

October 2, 2009

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NTSB RELEASES FACTUAL INFORMATION ON FATAL FREIGHT TRAIN

COLLISION IN IOWA

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In its continuing investigation of a freight train accident

in July in Iowa, killing two, the NTSB has developed the

following factual information:

At approximately 2:08 a.m. CDT on Tuesday, July 14, 2009, a

southbound Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad (DME)

train consisting of two locomotives and 83 freight cars

collided with railcars that had been placed on a track on

the west side of the Bettendorf rail yard (located in the

city of Bettendorf, Iowa) by a BNSF train crew. Both of the

crewmembers on the DME train, an engineer and a conductor,

were fatally injured in the collision. None of the BNSF

crewmembers were injured in the accident.

The northbound BNSF freight train from Barstow, Ill., had

arrived at the Bettendorf Yard about 12:15 a.m. to deliver

55 freight cars. After placing 18 freight cars on track 2

and 19 freight cars on track 3 in the west side of

Bettendorf Yard, the BNSF train crew pulled back onto the

main track and moved their locomotives and 18 remaining

freight cars into a siding on the east side of the main

track. The BNSF train crew left both the switch from the

main track to the west side of the yard, and the switch to

the siding track on the east side of the yard, in the open

position (aligned away from the main track).

The BNSF train crew then released its track authority to the

DME train dispatcher by radio. Following that, the

dispatcher gave the authority (by radio) to the DME train to

use the main track to travel from Bettendorf to Nahant,

Iowa.

The southbound DME train, which had been stopped outside the

Bettendorf Yard, then moved forward on the main track at the

track speed limit of 25 mph.  The switch from the main track

to the east siding was realigned by remote signal activation

by the DME train crew in order for the DME train to pass

through on the main track. The switch from the main track to

the west Bettendorf Yard was a manual switch only, however,

and it remained open to the west side yard tracks.

The open switch from the main track into the west side yard

diverted the southbound DME train to where it struck the

rail cars that were on track 3 in Bettendorf Yard.

The parties to the investigation, which is ongoing, are the

Federal Railroad Administration, BNSF, DME, the Brotherhood

of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the United

Transportation Union.

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NTSB Media Contact: Peter Knudson

peter.knudson@xxxxxxxx

(202) 314-6100

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