A scheduled meeting in Washington DC to decide the probable cause of a fatal accident between an Amtrak train and a truck, last summer, has been postponed by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) due to Hurricane Sandy.
On June 24, 2011 six people were killed and several more sustained injuries when a semi-trailer truck slammed into the Amtrak train at a rural crossing near Reno. 204 passengers and 14 crew members were aboard the locomotive at the time of the crash.
Preliminary data of the accident obtained from audio and video of the lead train indicate the crossing gates were down, while the train horn and crossing bell were properly working at the time of the train crash, according to the NTSB. Although, at least fifteen lawsuits against Amtrak contend the crossing gates came down late, or not at all.
At this time, the NTSB is yet to make a new meeting date.
In September, thousands of pages of documents were released by the federal agency that detailed factual findings on its investigation of the crash. The documents don’t offer analysis or conclusion.
Safety groups estimate that a train in the U.S. collides with a vehicle or person nearly every three hours. In 2010, there was more than 2,000 crashes between trains and vehicles at crossings, according to Operation LifeSafer.
The Legal Examiner and our Affiliate Network strive to be the place you look to for news, context, and more, wherever your life intersects with the law.
Comments for this article are closed.