2018 Crozet, Virginia train crash | |
---|---|
![]() Aftermath of the crash with the trash strewn about the accident site. | |
Details | |
Date | January 31, 2018 11:16 a.m. EST |
Location | Crozet, Virginia |
Coordinates | 38°04′38″N78°43′00″W / 38.0773314°N 78.71675°W |
Country | United States |
Line | CSX Piedmont, Washington, North Mountain Subdivision (operated under a lease agreement by the Buckingham Branch Railroad) |
Operator | Amtrak |
Incident type | Level crossing collision |
Cause | Vehicle incursion |
Statistics | |
Vehicles | 1 |
Passengers | more than 100 (2 on the truck) |
Crew | more than 10 |
Deaths | 1 |
Injured | 6 [1] |
The Crozet, Virginia train crash was a railway accident that occurred on January 31, 2018. A chartered Amtrak train named Congressional Special Train 923, following the route normally used by the Amtrak Cardinal and carrying a group of politicians and lawmakers from the Republican Party, collided with a garbage truck at a level crossing at Lanetown Road in Crozet, Virginia, 12 miles (19 km) west of Charlottesville, Virginia. The train was chartered by Republican lawmakers for transportation from Washington Union Station to an annual retreat at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. [2] Several politicians brought their spouses and children with them for the trip; no members of the general public were passengers.
About 11:16 a.m. EST (16:16 UTC), Amtrak Congressional Special Train 923 struck the left rear of a garbage truck operated by Time Disposal at a railroad crossing at Lanetown Road near Crozet, Virginia. This caused the truck to rotate counterclockwise and collide with a railroad signal structure next to the tracks. The body of the garbage truck separated from the cab, and the truck's two passengers were ejected. [4] The crossing is protected by flasher lights and gates, which were operating at the time of collision. According to a witness, the train sounded a prolonged warning with its horn as the truck was trying to cross the track. [5] According to an Albemarle County Police Department statement, 28-year-old truck passenger Christopher Foley died; he had mistakenly been identified by some as the driver. Another passenger was airlifted in critical condition, and the truck driver was taken to the hospital in serious condition. [2] Three train passengers and three Amtrak crewmembers reported minor injuries. [4] [6]
Several politicians on the train made statements on the scene to media outlets. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky described the incident as "...loud and surprising. Some minor bumps and bruises in this car. We saw debris go by the left side of the train. The part of the truck we can see was decimated. Very relieved when the train came to a stop and still on the tracks." [1]
Six injured people were taken to the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville. The hospital reported that one of the injured was in critical condition. [1] One member of Congress, Representative Jason Lewis of Minnesota, was taken to the hospital with a concussion. He was treated and released, rejoining the group at the retreat in the early evening. [1] Representative Roger Marshall, M.D., of Kansas, a passenger on the train, administered first aid and CPR to the injured, as did other passengers and local residents with medical training. [7]
At 1:15 p.m. EST, the partially derailed lead locomotive, Amtrak P42DC heritage unit #145, was removed from the train to allow the investigation to continue. The remainder of the train was then moved back to Charlottesville Union Station, where the passengers were transferred to waiting buses to continue their trip to the Greenbrier. [1] #145 was repaired and put back into service following the incident. [8] [9]
The crash was investigated by multiple agencies, with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) serving as the lead investigative agency. The Federal Railroad Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Albemarle County Police Department, Amtrak and the Buckingham Branch Railroad, who operates the rail line for CSX Transportation, assisted the NTSB in the investigation. [1] [4]
On February 21, 2018, the NTSB published a preliminary report on the accident. [4] It said the train was traveling about 61 miles per hour (98 km/h) when the engineer engaged the emergency brakes. [4] Witnesses said the gates were already down when the truck entered the crossing. According to the lead locomotive's front-facing camera, by the time the crossing came into view, the truck was already inside the crossing. [4]
After completing their investigation, the Albemarle County Police Department announced on June 8, 2018, that the driver of the garbage truck, Dana William Naylor Jr., had been indicted by an Albemarle County grand jury on one count of involuntary manslaughter for the death of truck passenger Christopher Foley. Naylor was also charged with one count of maiming while driving under the influence for causing permanent physical injury to Dennis Eddy, who was also a passenger in the truck. The substance that Naylor was accused of being under the influence of was not named in the announcement, [10] [11] although the NTSB later revealed that he had marijuana and anti-seizure medication in his blood. [12] Naylor was ultimately acquitted on both the DUI maiming and involuntary manslaughter charges in February 2019. [12] [13]
The Metrolink Ventura County Line is a commuter rail line serving Ventura County and the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles, in the Southern California system. The line is the successor of the short lived CalTrain commuter rail line.
On March 15, 1999, Amtrak's southbound City of New Orleans passenger train collided with a semi-trailer truck in the village of Bourbonnais, Illinois, United States. Most of the train derailed, killing eleven people. A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation into the accident attributed the cause to the truck driver trying to beat the train across a grade crossing. The NTSB's recommendations from the accident included increased enforcement of grade crossing signals, the installation of train event recorders at all new or improved grade crossings, and procedures to provide emergency responders with accurate lists of all crew members and passengers aboard trains. The city of Bourbonnais erected a memorial near the site to commemorate those killed in the accident.
The 1995 Fox River Grove bus–train collision was a grade crossing collision that killed seven students riding aboard a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, on the morning of October 25, 1995. The school bus, driven by a substitute driver, was stopped at a traffic light with the rearmost portion extending onto a portion of the railroad tracks when it was struck by a Metra Union Pacific Northwest Line train en route to Chicago.
Buckingham Branch Railroad is a Class III short-line railroad operating over 275 miles (443 km) of historic and strategic trackage in Central Virginia. Sharing overhead traffic with CSX and Amtrak, the company's headquarters are in Dillwyn, Virginia in the former Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad (C&O) station, itself a historic landmark in the community. The railroad was featured in the January 2012 issue of Trains Magazine. It is referenced in the How It’s Made episode “Railway Bridge Ties”, showing it crossing a curved bridge.
The 2008 Chatsworth train collision occurred at 4:22:23 p.m. PDT on September 12, 2008, when a Union Pacific Railroad freight train and a Metrolink commuter rail train collided head-on in the Chatsworth neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States.
On February 16, 1996, a MARC commuter train collided with Amtrak's Capitol Limited passenger train in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, killing three crew and eight passengers on the MARC train; a further eleven passengers on the same train and fifteen passengers and crew on the Capitol Limited were injured. Total damage was estimated at $7.5 million.
On the evening of February 3, 2015, a commuter train on Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line struck a passenger car at a grade crossing near Valhalla, New York, United States, between the Valhalla and Mount Pleasant stations, killing six people and injuring 15 others, seven very seriously. The crash is the deadliest in Metro-North's history, and at the time the deadliest rail accident in the United States since the June 2009 Washington Metro train collision, which killed nine passengers and injured 80.
The 2015 Oxnard train derailment occurred on February 24, 2015, at 5:44 a.m. local time when a Metrolink passenger train collided with a truck that a driver had mistakenly turned from Rice Avenue onto the tracks and became stuck. After impact, the train derailed at Oxnard, California, United States. As a result of the crash, the train engineer died from his injuries a week later and 32 passengers and crew members were injured. The truck driver exited his vehicle and ran from the scene prior to the crash; he sustained minor injuries that were unrelated to the crash sequence.
On March 9, 2015, an Amtrak passenger train derailed in Halifax, North Carolina, after colliding with a truck carrying an oversize load that was obstructing the line at a grade crossing. There were no fatalities, but 55 people were injured.
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.
On December 18, 2017, Amtrak Cascades passenger train 501 derailed near DuPont, Washington, United States. The National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) final report said regional transit authority Sound Transit failed to take steps to mitigate a curve at the accident location, and inadequately trained the train engineer. The train was making the inaugural run of the Point Defiance Bypass, a new passenger rail route south of Tacoma, Washington, operated by Amtrak in partnership with state and local authorities in Oregon and Washington, on right-of-way owned and operated by Sound Transit. The bypass was intended to reduce congestion and separate passenger and freight traffic, and was designed for faster speeds and shorter travel times, saving ten minutes from Seattle to Portland compared with the previous route used by Cascades.
On February 4, 2018, the southbound Amtrak Silver Star No. 91 passenger train from New York City to Miami collided with a stationary CSX Transportation freight train in Cayce, South Carolina, just south of the state's capital of Columbia on CSX's Columbia Subdivision. Two Amtrak crew members were killed and 116 other crew and passengers were injured.
The Everett, Massachusetts train crash was a railway accident that occurred on December 28, 1966, when a train struck a stalled tank truck, killing 13 people.
On June 27, 2022, the Southwest Chief, a passenger train operated by Amtrak, derailed near the small town of Mendon, Missouri. The derailment was caused by the train striking a dump truck that was obstructing the crossing of County Road 113, about three miles (4.8 km) southwest of Mendon. Four people were killed in the wreck: three passengers on board the train and the truck driver, with up to 150 people injured.