OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – A former official of the Federal Railroad
Administration says human error is likely the cause of a head-on
train collision in the Oklahoma Panhandle that killed two engineers
and a conductor.
The state medical examiner said Tuesday it had received the
remains of the three men killed in Sunday’s accident. The National
Transportation Safety Board has said it appears signals were
working properly at the time of the wreck, and that one of two
trains passing through the flat landscape should have pulled onto a
side track.
Gil Carmichael, a former official at the Federal Railroad
Administration, said Tuesday that if the signals were working
properly, crew members were likely at fault. The crash triggered a
diesel-fueled fireball that engulfed the lead locomotives on two
Union Pacific freight trains.
