More questions than answers in truck-train crash

Three days after a horrific crash involving an Amtrak train and a big rig outside Reno left at least six people dead, investigators had more questions than answers Sunday.

National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener said the number of missing had been “whittled down” from an earlier estimate of 28, but further information would have to come from local officials — who referred questions back to the NTSB.

Amtrak analyzed the westbound California Zephyr’s manifest and determined that 196 passengers had been aboard when it was struck by the truck Friday morning.

“As of 4 p.m. Sunday, we have been able to make contact with all but five passengers or their families,” said Marc Magliari, an Amtrak spokesman.

Of the six confirmed dead, one was the truck driver and one was the conductor.

Two rail cars that were badly charred in the accident remained on the tracks near the crash site, 70 miles east of Reno.

Two forensic anthropologists, Dennis Dirkmaat and Steven Symes of Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa., arrived to help in the search. Both have been part of NTSB teams in the past and are experts in bone trauma and the recovery of human remains. Symes co-edited “The Analysis of Burned Human Remains.”

The train was heading from Chicago to Emeryville, Calif., when the accident happened in Churchill County.

The county sheriff’s office said six fatalities had been confirmed, but it was not releasing identities. The Washoe County Medical Examiner’s Office, which conducts autopsies for northern Nevada, said it was still trying to determine the identities.

It was unclear whether the identities of the dead matched the five passengers whom Amtrak could not contact.

The dead conductor was Laurette Lee, 68, of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., Amtrak said.

The truck was operated by the John Davis Trucking Company Inc. of Battle Mountain, Nev., the Nevada Highway Patrol said.

The trucking company has had 17 violations involving faulty equipment and two crashes since 2009, the Federal Motor Vehicle Carrier Safety Administration said. In one case, a truck was operating with bald tires, and in another its springs were defective or missing, according to the agency’s website.

Weener said it did not appear that the violations were serious, but he could not comment on how the number of violations compared with the rest of the trucking industry.

The company, which could not be reached for comment, has been operating since 1970, its website said. NTSB investigators were scheduled to interview company officials and examine its records Tuesday.

Weener said investigators did not expect to recover any useful information from the truck’s event data recorder — its black box — because of the severity of the damage. A section of the truck’s tractor was still embedded in the side of a rail car, he said.

Weener has said that the truck was leading a three-truck convoy from the Battle Mountain trucking company. The two other drivers told investigators they saw the train coming and wondered why the lead driver wasn’t stopping.

The driver finally slammed on his brakes, leaving a 320-foot skid mark on northbound U.S. 95, Weener said. The grade crossing is protected by signs as far back as 900 feet, and by flashing lights and gates that activate 25 seconds before a train reaches the crossing.

Traveling at 70 mph, the truck would have been about half a mile from the intersection when the lights began flashing, Weener said. Widely used stopping-distance estimates indicate that a truck traveling at 70 mph needs 465 feet to stop.

ralph.vartabedian@latimes.com