2 Suspended for Wiring Linked to Rail Accident

Two longtime employees of the Santa Fe Railroad have been suspended indefinitely for improperly wiring the signal involved in Friday night’s train wreck in Pico Rivera, officials revealed Tuesday.

Railroad spokesman Thomas C. Buckley said, “It was determined by our own investigation that the signal had been miswired.”

The malfunctioning signal light caused the crash of two freight trains that killed a railroad supervisor and triggered an explosion that destroyed a cafe and vacant church.

Supervisory Roles

The two suspended employees are supervisory personnel in the railroad’s signal department, Buckley said.

“They accepted responsibility. They have been placed on indefinite suspension pending a decision to discharge them,” he said,adding the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Railway Administration are being notified of the railroad’s action.

“This is a tragedy for everybody,” Buckley said. “These are longtime employees. Railroad men are a close fraternity and when something happens that was the responsibility of someone else in the fraternity, it’s doubly hard to take.”