Investigators Trying to Learn Why Truck Was on Tracks

Federal investigators began to probe the charred and twisted wreckage Wednesday in their effort determine why a truck drove onto the tracks in front of a high-speed passenger train in a crash that killed three and injured at least 55.

Most officials agreed that heavy fog was a factor in Tuesday’ accident, but reports still conflicted as to whether the grade-crossing signals and gates were working properly in the seconds before impact.

The Santa Fe railroad cleared a path through the wreckage about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, and the first freight train moved through about an hour and a half later. Amtrak passenger service was still being detoured around the crash site Wednesday, using nearby Southern Pacific railroad tracks.

Officials said that although 24 of the injured had initially been listed in serious or critical condition, only nine remained hospitalized Wednesday afternoon.

The San Joaquin County coroner’s office Wednesday identified the locomotive engineer killed in the crash as Edward McMillan, 48, of Hayward and the fireman who died beside him as Michael G. Passarella, 41, of San Francisco.

The coroner’s office earlier had identified the third man who died as David Haskell, 47, of Anaheim, the driver of the truck laden with chocolate syrup that was hit broadside by the train.

State Department of Motor Vehicle records show that Haskell had been cited for speeding three times in the last two years, but the California Highway Patrol said there was no indication that the truck was exceeding the speed limit as it approached the grade crossing where the accident occurred.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators said late Wednesday that a “black box” recorder designed to compile data on the train’s speed and control settings apparently was destroyed in the fire that swept through the locomotive after impact. The fire, fed by diesel oil from the locomotive’s fuel tanks, burned for about 90 minutes before firefighters extinguished it.

The investigators said they are attempting to determine whether an advance-warning device recovered from the locomotive had sounded an alarm in the seconds before the crash.

Officials said the device should have alerted the engineer if the flashing lights, alarm bells and crossing gates were not functioning as they should have as Amtrak Train No. 708--the San Joaquin Flyer--approached the rural grade crossing at 70 m.p.h.

Amtrak spokesman Arthur Lloyd said Wednesday that preliminary inspections suggest that the lights, bells and gates at Mariposa Road were operating properly. He said the splintered gate arm found after the wreck indicates that the truck sheared off the already lowered barrier as the big rig rolled into the path of the train.

“Evidently, the vehicle ignored the lights and went right in front of the train,” Lloyd said.

“The bottom line to crossing accidents is that in 99% of them, ultimately you find that the driver did not heed or obey warning signals,” said Michael A. Martin, a Santa Fe railroad spokesman from Los Angeles. “We see situations where people abandon all common sense to save 30 seconds.”

However, Stockton trucker Leon Gritz, who said he was driving directly behind the truck that was hit, told California Highway Patrol investigators he did not see the flashing lights. He also said the crossing gates were not lowered as they should have been.

Grits, who said he drives the route frequently, told reporters that the gates often lower too slowly to seal off the grade crossing before high-speed trains arrive there.

Federal officials said that under current regulations, trains are permitted to pass through the crossing at up to 79 m.p.h., regardless of the weather or visibility.

Lloyd said Wednesday that while the fog, which had cut visibility to an estimated 100 yards or less at the time of the accident, was not a factor in the operation of the train, “it could have been a very significant factor as far as the truck was concerned.”