Track Failure Is Suspected in Fatal Amtrak Train Derailment

Track failure is the “prime suspect” in the weekend derailment of an Amtrak train bound for Northern California, a federal investigator said Monday.

Metallurgists will examine the rail in minute detail looking for internal fissures that could have caused the tracks to buckle or pop when the California Zephyr rattled through rural Iowa with 241 passengers and a crew of 16 just before midnight Saturday.

As the train passed along a straight stretch about 75 miles southwest of Des Moines, the engineer felt a tug behind him. “He had a sense that something had gone wrong,” said John Goglia, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Indeed, something had.

Scuff marks on the lead locomotive’s rear wheels indicate that it derailed first, Goglia said. The passenger cars behind it quickly jumped the tracks too, hurling riders into the walls of their cabins as some cars slid down a muddy bank, some overturned and some skidded sideways until they came to a stop perpendicular to the tracks.

One woman was killed and 96 passengers were injured. Six remained in local hospitals Monday night, including one in serious condition.

The investigation into the cause of the crash will take months. But Goglia said all signs point to rail failure. There is no indication of human error--the engineer was operating the train at 52 mph, well below the 79-mph speed limit--and the railroad signals and locomotive parts have all checked out OK so far. Asked if sabotage had been ruled out, Goglia answered: “In my personal opinion, yes.”

He added: “It is clear that there was a fracture in the rail.”

But how that fracture developed--or exactly where or when--remains unknown.

The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, which owns the stretch of track in question, maintains it with safety checks “considerably over the minimum” required by law, Goglia said.

The railroad sends personnel to do visual checks of the track every day--including the day of the accident--though such inspections are required just twice a week under federal regulations. Similarly, the railroad uses ultrasound to scan for internal fissures every 30 days, though it is required just twice a year.

If the track is well inspected, however, it is also well used.

The 3,000 feet of track that ripped and twisted during the wreck carried 103 million tons of freight traffic last year. “It’s a very heavily used section of track,” Goglia said. In fact, a coal train rumbled over the rails less than an hour before the derailment.

Sometimes, heavy weight--or the release of weight after a train passes--can put so much stress on microscopic flaws in the rails that the tracks fracture, said Jerry Jenkins of Burlington Northern.

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Times staff writer Stephanie Simon contributed to this story.