Deadly South Carolina train crash caused by track locked in wrong position, says safety chief
Two people were killed and 116 injured in Sunday’s crash between an Amtrak passenger train and a stationary goods train
A train switch that was apparently locked in the wrong position is being blamed for a train collision early Sunday that killed two people and injured up to 116 others near Cayce, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said Sunday afternoon that there’s no evidence of foul play, although the FBI is assisting in the investigation.
A switch was aligned and locked to divert the Amtrak train onto a side track, where the CSX goods train was parked. The train, estimated to be travelling at more than 80km/h in a 95km/h zone, then slammed into the line of freight cars, officials said. Sumwalt said there was “no way” the Amtrak train could have stopped to avoid a collision.
“The key to this investigation is learning why that switch was lined that way,” Sumwalt said at a news conference. He said “our goal is to find out not only what happened, but why it happened so we can prevent it from happening again.’’
According to the Federal Railroad Administration, Congress required some railroad mainlines, including those with commuter rail passenger service, to fully implement positive train control by the end of 2015. But Congress extended the deadline by at least three years to December 31, 2018, according to the FRA.
Such technology acts similar to a braking system, to prevent crashes. If signals ahead indicate a problem, the positive train control is supposed to slow down the locomotive remotely.
“Every one of these accidents, in fact, could have been prevented’’ by positive train controls, Sumwalt said. “How many years have we been calling for PTC?’
Positive train controls are designed to compensate for human error, such as leaving a train switch in the wrong position, officials said.
“This is indeed a tragic human error,’’ Sumwalt said.
