5:05 p.m. | Updated Investigators were examining the wreckage Sunday after a tractor-trailer plowed through railroad gates into an Amtrak train at a crossing early Friday in Nevada, killing at least six people and leaving at least 28 people unaccounted for.
The explanation for the crash, a seemingly freak accident that has drawn national attention and prompted morbid fascination, remains a mystery.
Investigators on Sunday said they were combing the area for clues as to why the truck driver breached the railroad crossing, despite ample warnings to stop, including the gates at the crossing coming down and flashing lights going off as the California Zephyr train approached. Investigators said it could take a year to determine the cause of the crash.
The tractor-trailer skidded the length of a football field before it smashed the crossing’s gates, according to The Associated Press. He died from the impact, making it more difficult to determine what happened, investigators said.
Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said by phone Sunday that the train’s data recorder had been recovered, which could allow investigators to analyze the operation of the train’s controls at the time of the crash.
He said investigators would also be examining the cell phone records of the tractor-trailer’s driver to determine whether he was talking on the phone or sending text messages at the time of the crash. An autopsy also to be conducted this week to determine the physical state of the driver, including if he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
“We are in the fact-gathering stage of the investigation and it could take months before a picture of what happens emerges,” he said. “We have seen a lot of cases when drivers have been distracted and we want to see if this was a factor.”
The Reno Gazette-Journal reported that the truck driver was a man in his mid-40s who worked for John Davies Trucking of Battle Mountain, in northern Nevada. Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Dan Lopez told the paper that the investigation would focus on the driver’s actions leading up to the accident.
“That’s what everybody wants to know. Why did the truck collide with the train?” Mr. Lopez said. “Unfortunately, since he was pronounced dead, he’s the only one who can tell us that prior to the investigation.”
Earl Weener, a member of the safety board told reporters that two truck drivers and a train engineer watched helplessly as the accident unfolded. He said that the drivers were part of a three-truck convoy.
The engineer of the train slammed on the emergency brakes and hoped the train would not derail, Mr. Weener said. But the train, which was going about 78 miles an hour, traveled a half mile more before it stopped. The engineer watched the truck smash into 2 of the train’s 10 cars through the rearview mirror, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported.
Video posted on the Web site of the Reno Gazette-Journal shows the smoldering train; the footage also shows the remains of the tractor-trailer, its tires dislodged from the vehicle.
Aerial photographs of the crash site reveal a plaintive scene: the railway crossing surrounded by fields, the windows of the charred train apparently blown out from the impact.
Among the dead, the Churchill County Sheriff’s office reported, was the train conductor. According to local news reports, the conductor was 68-year-old Laurette Lee of South Lake Tahoe, Calif, a mother of three and grandmother of five who came from a railroad family. Her grandfather Hilary Turley and her great-grandfather Aaron Turley were both railroad men. Her brother is an Amtrak dispatcher; her nephew a conductor.
In a profile of the conductor in the Contra Costa Times, her family recalled that she started her career in the railroad 23 years ago, working as a baggage handler and ticket-taker, before being promoted to conductor. About two years ago, she left Concord and moved to South Lake Tahoe and worked out of Amtrak’s Reno headquarters, her relatives said.
Her nephew Ben Rankin, the conductor, told the paper that 10 years ago his aunt had mentored him when he decided to enter the railroad fraternity, standing by his side and guiding him as he conducted his first train.
“She takes care of everybody she comes into contact with,” Mr. Rankin said. “I wouldn’t have done it without her.”
The westbound California Zephyr was en route from Chicago to Emeryville, Calif., with 204 passengers and 14 crew members on board when it was hit.
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