Two trains collided head-on on the UP near Goodwell, OK. One reported fatality. A brush fire started by the collision has caused some evacuations, and smoke from the fire has closed the Guymon Airport.
I find the last paragraph of this Associated Press article to be more than a little disconcerting:
"GOODWELL, Okla. – Authorities say two trains have collided in the Oklahoma Panhandle, sparking a diesel fire.
Texas County Emergency Management Director Harold Tyson says he didn’t know if anyone had been injured in the Sunday morning accident, which forced the closure of U.S. Highway 54 about a mile west of Goodwell.
Tyson says officials received emergency calls a little after 10 a.m. that the trains had crashed. At least one train was carrying chemicals, but Tyson says the fire hadn’t burned close to them.
He says no other vehicles were involved in the accident.
Tyson hasn’t been able to determine which companies own the trains."
John Timm
Mr. Tyson must be some political bigwig’s idiot brother-in-law.
Mr. Tyson definitely has his finger on the local pulse. [X-)] Quite possibly he thought one of the trains might have belonged to the Rock Island (?). [:-,]
[:^)]
Be interesting to read the final report on this one…[:S]
I am betting the train heading West missed the siding at Guyman OK the next town east and look out either that or the Dispatcher was Brain Dead.
We don’t even know what happened, the smoke hasn’t cleared, people are killed but yet let’s just call someone “brain dead”?
Nice. Real nice.
Could be any number of things…that’s why I like waiting to see what the final NTSB report says…
From other sources, I’m informed that this is a long, straight stretch of railroad, with trains clearly visible for goodly distances, and that it’s CTC-controlled.
I have an idea (as usual) what happened, but–without better knowing the lay of the land, will not discuss it further. (When I’ve had ideas before, they’re either correct or–in more cases–more, often contradictory, statements have come to light.)
A local perspective:
Looks pretty bad.
Rgds IGN
I drive Highway 54 twice a year. This is flat wheat growing country and unless there are visability problems caused by smoke or dust you can see ahead for more than a mile. Also the UP has signals supporting their operations so both crews should have had ample warning. Sounds like human failure, perhaps with dispatching also at fault.
Goodwell is about eleven miles SW from Guymon and there are no curves.
I used to drive that way ALOT also when I was an OTR Driver when going between KC and LA was the Fastest way and man you are talking FLATTER THAN FLAT. Why I said the Dispatcher was Brain Dead on this was their SCREEN should have been SCREAMING COLLISION WARNING FOR MINS and they should have screamed ALL STOP NOW and stopped this. Sorry but when the Train missed the SIding he or She should have been Notified and could have STOPPED IT RIGHT THEN by Stopping BOTH TRAINS RIGHT THEN.
Ok.
Just because you drove a truck out there does not mean you know what happened, what the DS did or did not do. You do not know how far into a block the train went… you do not know if it was pure human error, or a signal malfunction, whether he contacted the trains or not, whether there was time or not.
So STOP pretending like you do. I’m sure that DS, whether any blame comes to him or not, well, I can’t even imagine what he is feeling like right now.
There will be more than enough blame to go around - so let’s let the FRA, the NTSB and the UP do their jobs in investigating this incident. Throwing rocks from the truck drivers seat onto railroad property doesn’t cut it.
As in most incidents such as this, there will be multiple errors of commission, omission and rule violations that will have caused the chain of events that lead to the collision.
Westbound was AAMMLX , the Eastbound was ZLAAH. The accident happened on the East end of the 71 mile straightaway.
Human failure? Probably. The 100+ heat may have also been a contributing factor. Let FRA and NTSB do their work.
The turf is Cotton-Rock country. Don’t doubt diningcar knows the territory. He and I roamed the Panhandle out there too often. In beteen Elkhart/Sturgis (ex ATSF/ now CVR) and Shattuck on the southern transcon, just north of the Texas border.
Discouraging. That country is a virtual milk-run with some undulation. J. A. Noble is looking down with tears from above.
Where is the nearest siding? And the question of the day were the 2 trains supposed to meet?
Rgds IGN
Dad used to get real bottled up after an accident like this. One way or another it will come down to human error. It really used to bother him before Rule “G” began to be rigorously enforced.
In the immediate aftermath, those involved will claim some sort of mechanical malfunction, but the simple rule is; no signal where there is supposed to be a signal, is a stop signal. He said he had never heard of an accident where there was a case of an incorrectly displayed electric signal relative to the situation at hand on ABS or CTC track. Back in the days of manually operated semaphores and train orders you are dealing with human error again. There are only missed or misinterpreted signals.
Single train derailments can and often are caused by mechanical failure, but two trains crashing into one another shouldn’t happen. There is over a century and a half of experience to make sure it doesn’t happen.
Apologies to anyone involved in an accident outside of my limited western Canadian experience caused by a proven signal malfunction.
Bruce
I’ve seen mechanical things (like signals) fail.
Nothign is perfect. But rulebooks aren’t written in blood anymore - they are written in the ink of the lawyer’s pen.
If the witness is accurate his story is perplexing:
Gary Mathews was driving down Highway 54 when the trains collided, and witnessed the accident. “Saw trains coming toward each other for about 3 miles. Heard the eastbound train blowing the horn and going 68 mph, even speed,” Mathews said. "The trains hit head-on and then derailed. The westbound train was hauling cars. The westbound train laid over on it’s side as I passed. I did not see any operators inside the trains. I was 50 yards from the train when it collided.
“A wall of heat hit my windshield and came through it from the explosion of fuel in the engines. The eastbound train had three engines on it. The westbound train had two. The westbound train was moving very slow before the collision.”
So the eastbound crew was certainly alert, as they were using the whistle, and yet maintained a speed of roughly 68mph when they saw a westbound approaching on single track? Something is being left out.