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Palo Verde derailment | |
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Location | Palo Verde, Arizona |
Date | October 9, 1995 |
Target | Amtrak Sunset Limited |
Attack type | Train derailment caused by sabotage |
Deaths | 1 |
Injured | 78 |
Perpetrators | Unknown |
Motive | Retaliation of the Waco Siege |
The 1995 Palo Verde derailment took place on October 9, 1995, when Amtrak's Sunset Limited was derailed by saboteurs near Palo Verde, Arizona on Southern Pacific Railroad tracks. Two locomotives, Amtrak GE P32-8BWH #511 leading and EMD F40PHR #398 trailing, and eight of twelve cars derailed, four of them falling 30 feet (9 m) off a trestle bridge into a dry river bed. [1] Mitchell Bates, a sleeping car attendant, was killed. Seventy-eight people were injured, 12 of them seriously and 25 were hospitalized. [2]
Four typewritten notes, attacking the ATF and the FBI for the 1993 Waco Siege, criticizing local law enforcement, and signed "Sons of the Gestapo", were found near the scene of the wreck, indicating that the train had been sabotaged. [3] All four notes were similar. One of the notes was found by Neal Hallford, [4] [5] [6] a passenger traveling from Oklahoma to San Diego.
It was found that the rails had been shifted out of position to cause the derailment, but only after they had been connected with wires. This kept the track circuit closed, circumventing safety systems designed to warn locomotive engineers of track problems, and suggested that the saboteurs had a working knowledge of railroads. The attack was likened to the 1939 wreck of the City of San Francisco , in which a similar method killed 24 people. [7]
Following the incident, Amtrak President Thomas Downs told CNN that improved monitoring and security measures have greatly reduced the chances of a similar incident. [2]
The saboteurs were never identified.
After 1996, the Sunset Limited was rerouted to south of Phoenix (approaching no closer than Maricopa) due to the desire of Union Pacific to abandon this stretch of track for its through trains between southern New Mexico and southern California. [8] The section of track, now known as the Roll Industrial Lead of the Phoenix Subdivision, on which the derailment took place is now used as storage track only. It could be reactivated in the future if freight traffic increases.
The causes of this wreck have been explored in two major documentaries, Why Trains Crash: Blood on the Tracks, and Derailed: America's Worst Train Wrecks.
It has also been featured on the May 10, 1996, episode of Unsolved Mysteries . [9] and Parcasts’ Conspiracy Theories podcast on Spotify on April 17, 2024.
The case remains unsolved. On April 10, 2015, the Phoenix office of the FBI announced a reward of $310,000 for information about the derailment leading to the capture of those responsible. [10] The reward is still outstanding as of 2024 [update] . [11]
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The Sunset Limited is a long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak on a 1,995-mile (3,211 km) route between New Orleans, Louisiana, and Los Angeles, California, with major stops in Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, and Tucson. Introduced in 1894 by the Southern Pacific Railroad, it is the oldest continuously operating named train in the United States.
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William Neal Hallford is an American game designer, book author, screenwriter, and independent film director. He is best known for his work on the fantasy role-playing games Betrayal at Krondor, Dungeon Siege, and Champions of Norrath.
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The 2015 Philadelphia train derailment of a New York City-bound Amtrak train in Kensington, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States resulted in multiple passenger injuries and deaths and disrupted Amtrak service for several days afterward due to the resulting investigation and removal of the wrecked train cars.
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Rail sabotage is the act of disrupting a rail transport network. This includes both acts designed only to hinder or delay as well as acts designed to actually destroy a train. Railway sabotage requires considerable effort, due to the design and heavy weight of railways.
On August 12, 1939, the City of San Francisco train derailed outside of Harney, Nevada, United States, killing 24 and injuring 121 passengers and crew. The derailment was caused by sabotage of the tracks. Despite a manhunt, reward offers, and years of investigation by the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP), the case remains unsolved.
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The Phoenix Subdivision is a railroad line in the U.S. state of Arizona owned by the Union Pacific Railroad. The southeast end of the line connects to the Gila Subdivision near Eloy, runs northeast to Phoenix, and becomes the Roll Industrial Lead, running southwest before reconnecting to the Gila Subdivision at Wellton. As of 2010, eighty miles (130 km) of the line between Roll and Arlington are out of service and used for car storage.
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