Driver named in fatal truck-train collision

The driver of a big rig that plowed into an Amtrak train in Nevada on Friday had five traffic violations since 2008, four of them for speeding in California and Alabama, according to records from the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles.

Lawrence R. Valli, 43, of Winnemucca, Nev., was identified Monday by the Nevada Highway Patrol. He was driving a truck owned by the John Davis Trucking Co.

The official death toll remains at six and seemed unlikely to rise as Amtrak lowered its number of missing.

In addition to Valli, a conductor on the train and at least four passengers died in the fiery crash. The Washoe County medical examiner identified two of the passengers as Francis Knox, 58, and her granddaughter Karly Knox, 18, of Seward, Neb.

Amtrak officials said that except for two passengers, they had accounted for all of the people aboard the train. Late in the evening, that number had been reduced to one, the Associated Press reported.

Earlier, Amtrak said it had accounted for all but five passengers, leaving open the possibility that a seventh person had died in the crash. But the medical examiner’s office said it had only six bodies.

Meanwhile, the National Transportation Safety Board said it had brought in additional experts to investigate the crash, but still had little evidence that would explain what happened.

A cellphone found in the wreckage and believed to be Valli’s will be examined by investigators to determine whether he was using it at the time of the accident, said board member Earl Weener.

Weener said that the truck Valli was driving consisted of a tractor and two trailers that weighed nearly 40,000 pounds, but the NTSB had not determined the minimum stopping distance for the vehicle under the circumstances. The truck had two fuel tanks that could have held a maximum of 220 gallons.

The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles released Valli’s driving record Monday, showing he had three speeding violations in California when he was driving a school bus. Another speeding violation, in which he exceeded the limit by 11 to 20 mph, occurred in Alabama. He had a seat belt violation in California as well.

ralph.vartabedian@latimes.com