Truck smashes into US train, 6 killed
Source: Agencies |
June 27, 2011, Monday
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TWO truck drivers and a train engineer watched helplessly as a semitrailer skidded 100 meters before it smashed through crossing gates and into two double-decker cars of an Amtrak train at a Nevada highway crossing.
The drivers were part of a three-truck convoy that saw the gates come down and the warning lights go off as the California Zephyr train approached, National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener said on Saturday.
They stopped, but the driver of the big rig in the lead did not, he said.
The Churchill County Sheriff's office said on Saturday that six people had died in the crash late on Friday morning. Authorities earlier said the truck's driver was among the dead, and a transportation union confirmed that number included one of its members, the train's conductor.
Weener said 28 people were unaccounted for, but that the figure was "spongy" because some passengers may have left the train before the crash or walked away from the scene without checking with officials.
"This is not quite like you are used to when you get on an airplane. They record exactly who gets on, and what seat they sit in," he said. "On a train, you can get off without necessarily being tracked."
About 20 people were injured, and the United Transportation Union said on its website that the train's assistant conductor was among those seriously hurt.
The drivers were part of a three-truck convoy that saw the gates come down and the warning lights go off as the California Zephyr train approached, National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener said on Saturday.
They stopped, but the driver of the big rig in the lead did not, he said.
The Churchill County Sheriff's office said on Saturday that six people had died in the crash late on Friday morning. Authorities earlier said the truck's driver was among the dead, and a transportation union confirmed that number included one of its members, the train's conductor.
Weener said 28 people were unaccounted for, but that the figure was "spongy" because some passengers may have left the train before the crash or walked away from the scene without checking with officials.
"This is not quite like you are used to when you get on an airplane. They record exactly who gets on, and what seat they sit in," he said. "On a train, you can get off without necessarily being tracked."
About 20 people were injured, and the United Transportation Union said on its website that the train's assistant conductor was among those seriously hurt.
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