Six Killed When Train Hits Gas Tanker Stuck in Traffic

A gasoline tanker trapped in traffic at a railroad crossing was struck by an Amtrak train Wednesday and exploded in a giant fireball that set nine other trucks and cars ablaze, killing the tanker driver and five other people in their vehicles.

Fifteen people waiting at the crossing were injured, and six of the 118 people aboard the train were taken to a hospital for observation, officials said.

Witnesses described panic as people stuck in traffic scrambled for their lives after the blast.

“I just saw some people screaming all over the place,” said Billy Rodriguez, 25, of Coral Springs.

A Broward County sheriff’s deputy pulled the driver out of one burning vehicle that was behind him, said Sonya Friedman, a Ft. Lauderdale police spokeswoman. “He tried to rescue another, but couldn’t because of the fireball,” she said.

The blast left cars and small trucks scorched and scattered as if they had been in a tank battle. The gasoline truck burned for more than two hours after the crash at a crossing near Interstate 95.

The cars of the train--the Silver Star from New York City--remained upright. The fire-blackened lead locomotive stopped several hundred yards down the track.

Another witness, Barbara Freeman, said the tanker was trapped in bumper-to-bumper traffic when the warning lights came on and the gate lowered.

“He couldn’t back up, and he couldn’t go forward,” she said. “Then, the crossing gate did come down, but it came down on the cab of his truck.”

The truck driver inched forward until the crossing gate broke, Freeman said. Then the train hit the back of the tanker.

The train had been starting to brake and was going about 35 m.p.h., Friedman said.

Killed were the tanker driver, three people in a van and two people in separate cars, said Broward County sheriff’s spokesman Ott Cefkin. He said most of the 15 injured in their vehicles suffered smoke inhalation.

The Amerada Hess Corp. tanker was carrying about 8,500 gallons of gasoline--near its capacity--when it was struck, said Carl Tursi, a spokesman for the company.

Lynn Johnson, a spokesman for CSX Transportation Inc., which operates the tracks, said the crossing signals worked properly.

But a worker at an office nearby, Ceslyn Watkins, said the gates don’t give enough warning. “I almost got hit the very first day I started working here,” she said. “The (gate) would still be up, and you’d be coming across, and the train is coming.”