A freight train heading south did not stop to wait for a northbound train to switch off onto a vacant track, causing the two to collide Sunday morning in Lawrence County, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator said Tuesday.
The 92-car northbound train, which came out of North Little Rock, was on a single track, preparing to switch onto a second track branching out from it in south Hoxie at about 3 a.m. Sunday, federal investigator Michael Hiller said. The 86-car southbound train originating from East St. Louis, Ill., was on the same track and signaled that it would stop for the approaching northbound train to leave the track, but it did not.
The trains collided about 3 a.m. Sunday, killing an engineer and conductor in the southbound train and injuring the engineer and conductor in the northbound train.
Engineer Chance Gober of White Hall and conductor Roderick Hayes of McKinney, Texas, were killed while their train traveled southbound, spokesman Jeff Degraff said Monday.
Engineer Michael Zampakos of Maumelle and conductor Aaron Jeffery of Conway were seriously injured in the northbound train and taken to a hospital. The injuries were not life-threatening, Degraff said.
Degraff said Monday that he could not provide additional information on the workers' ages or tenure with the company or the injured workers' conditions.
The collision also prompted a locomotive and a tank car filled with unrefined drinking alcohol to catch fire.
The trains carried 31 tank cars of hazardous material, but they did not spill, Hiller said.
Metro on 08/20/2014