NTSB BLAMES AMTRAK ENGINEER FOR 2007 CHICAGO CRASH:
An Amtrak engineer was to blame for a crash in 2007 involving a speeding passenger train and a stopped freight train on Chicago's South Side that injured 71 people, federal safety officials have ruled.
The engineer of the Amtrak train failed to correctly heed a signal warning him to slow down and alerting him to the Norfolk Southern freight train stopped ahead, the National Transportation Safety Board found.
The NTSB faulted Amtrak for failing to make sure the engineer was trained to understand the different signals used by railroads on the routes over which he operated.
Also contributing to the crash was a relief engineer's failure to communicate immediately to the engineer that he had misread the signal, the board concluded at a hearing in Washington. The red-over-yellow signal should have warned the crew to slow to 15 m.p.h. and to be prepared to stop for any trains or obstructions ahead. But the engineer misinterpreted the signal as a "slow-approach," which would have let him operate at a maximum speed of 30 m.p.h. while being prepared to stop at the next signal, the report said.
The Amtrak train was headed to Union Station from Grand Rapids, Mich. It was traveling 25 miles an hour faster than the warning signal allowed on Nov. 30, 2007, when it plowed into the rear of the freight train.
[United Transportation Union, 4-1-09, from Chicago Tribune report]