4 Dead in Fiery Crash of Coal, Freight Trains

A coal train that apparently ran a stop signal slammed head-on into another freight train Thursday, sparking a diesel fire and killing four of the six crewmen aboard the trains, officials said.

“It was a terrible crash,” said Denton Adams, an 81-year-old farmer who saw the collision from his home on a hillside about 100 yards above the site. “The two engines ran together and then ran on top of each other.”

Twisted wreckage and mountains of coal lay on the tracks where the two freight trains, with a combined five locomotives and 166 cars, collided about a half-mile west of this central Pennsylvania community. The crash started a diesel fuel fire that burned for more than four hours.

Twisted Wreckage

The bodies of four crew members were found in the charred and twisted wreckage. The two other crewmen were slightly injured.

A preliminary investigation showed that the coal train apparently ran a stop signal and plowed head-on into the oncoming train that was carrying tractor-trailers with mixed freight, a Conrail spokesman in Philadelphia said.

Ralph Gratz, a Conrail spokesman at the scene, said it had not been determined if human error or a mechanical problem led to the accident. Drug and alcohol tests were planned for the crew, he said.

Gratz said three recorders that take information such as train speed and when brakes are applied were recovered from the locomotives. He said he was not sure of the speed at impact but noted that the trains were authorized to travel up to 40 m.p.h. in the area.

The coal train, with two locomotives and 105 cars, was headed east from the Shireoaks station near Monongahela to Baltimore, Conrail spokesman Bob Libkind said. The piggy-back train, with three locomotives and 61 cars, was traveling west from Elizabeth, N. J., to Chicago.

Coal spilled from one of the derailed trains, blocking a state road adjacent to the tracks, officials said.