Officials ID fatalities in train collision

June 25, 2012

Wreckage from Sunday's train collision smolders on Monday afternoon near Goodwell. (Staff photo/Shawn Yorks)

GOODWELL – Three Union Pacific crew members are dead following a Sunday morning head-on collision between two freight trains near Goodwell that produced a diesel fuel-fed fire so intense that the thick, black smoke caused the evacuation of a nearby trailer park.
Reported dead are Brian L. Stone, 50, of Dalhart, Texas; engineer Dan Hall and engineer John Hall (no relation to Dan Hall). Stone had been a conductor since September 2003.
Conductor Juan Zurita reportedly jumped to safety and was uninjured.
Each train carried two crew members, according to a Union Pacific spokesperson.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are on the scene and two members of the United Transportation Union Transportation Safety Team are assisting in the investigation.
News reports indicate the westbound train, with three locomotives and 80 auto rack cars, collided with an eastbound train, with two locomotives, hauling chemicals that reportedly did not ignite following the collision.
Gary Mathews, a passing motorist, who said he was 50 yards from the scene at the time of the collision, said “A wall of heat hit my windshield and came through it from the explosion of fuel in the engines.”
The accident took place Sunday just after an eastbound Union Pacific train carrying mixed goods from Los Angeles to Chicago passed through Goodwell at a good clip. A mile east of town, it hit a westbound Union Pacific train hauling cars and trucks.
The resulting diesel fireball seemed to merge tons of steel and spewed black smoke that could be seen for miles across the flat, arid landscape. One crew member suffered scrapes and bruises after jumping from the westbound train as it traveled alongside U.S. 54 about eight miles southwest of Guymon.
Mathews, a long-distance truck driver hauling freight from Phoenix to Missouri, had been running evenly with the train at 68 mph and looked ahead to see another train on the same track.
“I was thinking, I’m going to see a train crash unless somebody does something,” Mathews, of Independence, Mo., said Monday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “They’re not blowing the horn to each other, blinking lights or whatever. I kept thinking, ‘This cannot happen, it cannot happen.’”
Federal investigators deployed to the scene said it would be late Monday before they could speculate on why the trains were on the same track. The Union Pacific railroad has sidings at Guymon and Goodwell but only a single track runs between the two communities.
Mathews said he often will travel evenly with trains to see how fast they are going. “I like to run with the trains,” he said.
Mathews said the westbound train slowed considerably before the crash, but the eastbound train was still traveling “65 or better” when the trains hit about 50 yards away from him.
“A blast of hot air came through the side glass, and it put a burn on you like you step out of an air-conditioned bar into 110 degrees, through the glass,” he said. “There was a ‘thud’ and it was over. Smoke was rolling. Smoke went up so high it was like a foundry on fire, and it was barreling straight up,” he recalled.
“After I seen it, the feeling went through me, it scared the tar out of me, and I didn’t stop until I reached Emporia” in Kansas, about 350 miles away. He was interviewed Sunday by the Guymon Daily Herald and reached Monday by the AP.
“I didn’t even stop,” Mathews said, as he recalled watching the unfolding seconds immediately after the crash in his rearview mirror.
Local agencies responding to the scene reported a horrific sight. The Guymon Fire Department, along with crews from across Texas County battled the blaze caused by the collision. The Red Cross, Southern Baptist men, as well as local individuals and businesses took food and water to the scene.
Firefighters battled the blaze in 105-degree heat, and one Goodwell firefighter was transported to Memorial Hospital of Texas County with heat stroke symptoms. Multiple Guymon firefighters also suffered heat exhaustion and were treated at the scene.
Guymon Assistant Fire Chief Grant Wadley said in his 23 years as a firefighter, Sunday’s accident was the worst he’s ever seen.
“I’ve been on plane crashes, train crashes, car crashes, bus crashes, and nothing of this magnitude,” Wadley said. “It’s the first time anyone here has seen two trains collide. It’s overwhelming to think how much damage and how much energy went into those crashes.”
Crews returned to the station at 6 a.m. Monday, and went back twice Monday when the fire rekindled.
Texas County Emergency Management Director Harold Tyson was in contact with state agencies all day Sunday.
“Here in the Panhandle we take care of ourselves,” Tyson said. “But I was in communication with our state office a lot.”
The Woodward Emergency Management Director offered to come to Guymon to help, even though Woodward is still recovering from the April 15 tornado.
Seaboard brought water tankers and bulldozers, and all districts of the county brought water and equipment to help battle the blaze.
“I would hate think how many gallons of water we went through,” Tyson said.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Texas County Sheriff’s Department, Goodwell, Guymon and Texhoma police assisted with traffic control after Highway 54 was shut down. Traffic was diverted from Guymon north on Highway 64 to Mile 22 and Highway 95.
Mark Rosekind of the National Transportation Safety Board said Union Pacific, the Federal Rail Administration, the United Transportation Union, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the Guymon Fire Department are joining the NTSB in the initial information gathering of the incident. He said there were no anomalies with the signals at the Goodwell signal and grade crossings.
“At this point in the investigation, no anomalies have been found in the signal system,” Rosekind said. “That’s (after just) one full day of investigation. We’re not ruling anything out.”
Rosekind also said there have been no anomalies in the track data and investigators are planning for a site survey, but this early in the investigation, it’s still too early to determine why the trains were on the same track.
Event recorders and video have been found from the trailing locomotives — 7 total locomotives were involved. The video is being reviewed and some will be sent back to Washington, D.C. for analysis. A search is under way for other event recorders and other video of the crash.
Investigators have also been looking for the event recorder and video from the leading locomotives. The remnants of one have been found but it was severely damaged.
As far as crash worthiness, Rosekind said the impact left, “No surviveable space in either locomotive.”
“No information has officially been released from the medical examiner’s office (regarding the three other crew members),” he added.
He also said no anomalies have been found in braking function, and that investigators are reviewing work rest histories of the four crew members involved, as well as interviewing the surviving crew member. Officials interviewed one witness and said it was “very productive.”
There has been no information regarding any environmental damage, but the NTSB is investigating that, as well.
The tracks remain closed, and the NTSB is working with the railroad to get them open as soon as possible.
“The final decision for that will be with the railroad, but our impressions from them are that it’s getting very close,” Rosekind said.

Shawn Yorks and Trudy Hart of The Guymon Daily Herald, The United Transportation Union and The Associated Press contributed to this report