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in 1993 the amtrak railroad experienced
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the deadliest train crash in united
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states history
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47 passengers and crew were killed 103
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more were injured
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the cause of the accident was unclear
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the clues to this mystery were etched in
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twisted steel
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and buried in the mud of an alabama bio
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waiting for investigators to find them
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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amtrak sunset limited is the country's
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only remaining transcontinental train
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the sunset limited has an interesting
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history kind of dates back to the
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romantic time of train travel when it
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was
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very elegant and posh to travel by train
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on september 20th 1993 trudy justin and
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her husband larry boarded the sunset
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limited in deming new mexico headed for
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florida
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and i could sit there and look
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and talk to other people but the best
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part is going to the dining car we went
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to the dining car three times a day
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and you just trot back there and they
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were really nice to you
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[Music]
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after dinner trudy and larry returned to
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their seats to rest
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the train stopped briefly in new orleans
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to fix a broken air conditioner
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by 2 30 a.m it was running about 33
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minutes behind schedule
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it stopped in mobile alabama where the
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engineer waited until a freight train
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cleared the bridge up ahead
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then the sunset limited started on the
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last leg of its trip
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750 miles to miami
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the train throttled up to a cruising
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speed of 72 miles an hour but visibility
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was hindered by fog
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shortly before 3 am the sunset limited
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approached the bayou cannot bridge
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in a matter of seconds
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the train's three engines and next four
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cars plummeted into the water
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the engine's fuel tanks ruptured
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igniting the diesel fuel
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then the people start yelling we got to
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get out of here because this is going to
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explode
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the tugboat marvella was the first to
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report the accident
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i believe we're right below the train
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here's a hell of a fire in the middle of
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the river ain't supposed to be no fire
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behind like they don't know exactly
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where we at is so far again i can't tell
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she's never looking on radar so there's
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something bad wrong up here
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it was
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a hell on earth kind of an environment
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it was just
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a horrific horrific
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sight trudy grabbed her husband larry
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and swam for sure
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the fire just was getting
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bigger
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you see nothing i heard people
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saying oh we're gonna die we're gonna
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die
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and i heard the lord's prayer
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the movilla headed towards the flames
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through the dense fog to investigate
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i didn't know where the boat came from
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we had no idea all we know is the
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spotlight's on us and of course we could
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see that it was you could hear it
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the crew pulled 17 passengers from the
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water
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others were less fortunate the parents
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of a little girl she was 10 years old
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and handicapped they pushed her to the
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arms of a rescuer through a window
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on their car
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and they didn't make it out
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[Music]
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of the 220 passengers and crew on board
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47 people were dead or unaccounted for
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the fbi
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immediately flew to the crash site to
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investigate the possibility of terrorism
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the coast guard and the national
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transportation safety board also sent
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investigators
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the lead locomotive was found
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buried in the mud at about a 45 degree
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angle and three quarters of it you could
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not see it just buried itself into the
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marsh
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a second engine was alongside
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a third was on the opposite side of the
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bridge
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four derailed cars were nearby
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as a local salvage crew began the grim
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task of pulling the dead from the bayou
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investigators wanted to know
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what caused the deadliest accident in
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amtrak history
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in the early hours of september 22 1993
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amtrak sunset limited plummeted off the
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bayou cannot bridge in alabama killing
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42 passengers and five crew members
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ten minutes before the sunset limited
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derailed
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a freight train crossed the bridge in
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the opposite direction without incident
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[Music]
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so what happened
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in those 10 minutes
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divers recovered the trains event
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recorder from the bayou which is like an
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airlines flight data recorder
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the tape revealed the train was
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traveling at 72 miles per hour
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and there was no brake application
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whatever caused the crash
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the engineer never saw it
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investigators also discovered the
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signals on the track were green
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the
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signals are controlled by a current that
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goes through the rail
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and if the rail breaks the signal will
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immediately turn red so the signal
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didn't turn red
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the bridge was originally built in three
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sections
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the southern section was a 165-foot
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steel truss bridge
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the center section a single 140-foot
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steel girder was originally designed to
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pivot so river traffic could pass
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through
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the northern section was simply
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192 feet of track laid on top of a
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wooden trestle
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the center section was totally destroyed
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despite its design
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the swing feature of the bridge was
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never used and investigators discovered
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it wasn't connected properly
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since they never did use it as a swing
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bridge
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they never did put in
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the
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same amount of tie downs at the ends of
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the bridge to hold it in place
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divers also examined the wood pilings
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that supported the bridge
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we wanted to determine if the
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piles had undergone any kind of
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deterioration
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such as
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damage from wood destroying organisms
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like soft rod or brown rod decay
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under a powerful microscope
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scientists examined the cell walls of
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the samples
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they look for triangular shaped
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microorganisms like these which would
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indicate rot
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since we didn't find them present
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then we were fairly comfortable that
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there was no appreciable deterioration
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of the piles contributing to the
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collapse
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all that remained were three concrete
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piers
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when investigators looked more closely
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they discovered that the steel plates
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used to connect the bridge to the
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concrete were displaced 48 inches out of
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alignment
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corley also examined the bolts that
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attached the metal plates to the
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concrete
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those attachments were poorly maintained
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in several cases
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the holes that were supposed to have
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bolts through them didn't have anything
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recognizable
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in them when we took the material out
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that was in those holes we found that it
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was rust when the sunset limited was
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pulled out of the water of bayou cannot
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with sections of the bridge
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it was evident that something terrible
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had happened
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investigators found
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that one of its sides a metal girder had
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been sheared off as if struck on the end
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by a powerful force
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carly measured the spacing of the
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girders rivets
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and compared them to scratches along the
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side of the train's engine
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the rivets
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made
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lines down the side of the engine and
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you could match the lines made by those
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rivets with
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the bridge and confirm that
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that was what destroyed the girder on
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the bridge
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but how did the train hit the outside of
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the bridge
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while structural engineers examined all
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the evidence coast guard investigators
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began interviewing eyewitnesses
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what they were about to learn
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would provide a surprising lead to the
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investigation
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[Applause]
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investigators had many questions but few
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answers to what caused the crash of
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amtrak sunset limited
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coast guard investigators also
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interviewed the men and women
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who helped in the rescue
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my first stop was actually to interview
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the crew of the tugboat moth villa
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and that was because they were the
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reporting party of the accident
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on the night of the crash
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the marvello was making a routine run up
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the mobile river pushing a load of coal
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and pig iron
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the movilla was pushing six barges
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so the pilot was 400 feet away from the
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front of the barges
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investigators learned that the pilot
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willie odom called the coast guard three
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hours before the train crashed to report
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thick fog on the mobile river
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about a half hour before the accident
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odom said he steered his six barges
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around a bend in the mobile river and
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saw what appeared to be
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another tugboat on his radar
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he said he steered towards it hoping to
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tie onto it until visibility improved
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but before that could happen
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willie odom said his tugboat ran aground
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at this point captain andrew stabler
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took over command of the marvella and
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called the coast guard asking for help
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seems to have a cable or something
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wrapped in the wheel barges will float a
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drift southbound and if anybody down
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there can help round them up i would
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definitely appreciate it
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around 2 50 a.m
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the marvelous crew heard a crash
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then saw a fire through the fog
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i'm not sure what i'm seeing but i'm
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seeing something that's burning and it
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looks like it's crossways of the river i
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got out that far
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if that's what i'm looking at i don't
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have any idea
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but if the marvello was on the mobile
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river
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how were they able to see an accident on
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the bayou cannot six miles away
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but that was a mistake
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the accident was on the bridge going
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across the bayou cannot a waterway that
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was closed to commercial boat traffic
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bayou cannot is a
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subsidiary of the mobile river
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and in that very dense fog the operator
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of the tug mistakenly turned down into
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bayou cannot thinking it was a bend in
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the river a couple of miles further up
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river than where he really was
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but how could this happen
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investigators discovered that the
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movilla had no maps on board or even a
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compass
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that's a very important thing but the
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people in the river don't look at it
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that way so what all you do is steer
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between the banks and that's it
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the movilla was equipped with radar
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which wasn't required at the time but
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the pilot willie odom wasn't trained to
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use it
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the conclusion he didn't know anything
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about the radar you could turn it on you
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could look at it tell you the picture on
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everybody didn't know anything about
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the function of the radar
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when investigators heard odom's story
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they went back to the bridge to examine
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what now seemed like a key piece of
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evidence
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the railroad bridge had a concrete pier
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that was holding up the bridge structure
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and there was very fresh damage to the
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concrete of that bridge pier
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something had hit the point of the pier
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was it one of the marvellous barges
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had the marvella caused the sunset
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limited to derail
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when we found the left-hand barge
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there was a similar
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mark of scrape paint and an indentation
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into the middle
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in fact it kind of looked t-shaped which
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would indicate that the barge hit the
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top or flat portion as well as the edge
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of it and it kind of gave it a little
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t-shaped mark
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the other barges revealed more
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surprising clues
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the center barge also had damage there
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were vertical scrapes and an indentation
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a clue to the cause of the scrapes was
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found on the bridge's center span
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when we pulled the girder out of the
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water
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we did a visual inspection and we
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noticed that some of the vertical steel
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members called stiffeners that were on
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the side of the girder had been bent
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flat against the girder
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investigators measured the distance
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between
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the stiffeners and compared them to the
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vertical marks on the barge
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they were a perfect match
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now
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they had solid evidence to prove what
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caused the fatal crash of the sunset
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limited
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authorities knew that the tugboat
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movilla was in the vicinity of the bayou
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cannot bridge shortly before the train
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crash and not on the mobile river as the
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pilot thought
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investigators discovered concrete chips
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on the movilla's front left barge
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the chips along with samples from the
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bridge's pier were sent to the fbi for
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analysis
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each mix of concrete is unique it has a
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specific amount of
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rocks
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sand
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cement and water
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the investigators cut the concrete
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samples into razor thin slices then
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studied them under a transmitter light
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microscope
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the microscope shines polarized light
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through the samples revealing the
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specific optical properties of the rocks
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sand and cement
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the fbi after they
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examined the samples they found on the
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barge
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determined that
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the concrete on the barge
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was the same as that
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found in the pier at the south end of
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the bridge
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based on all the evidence
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the national transportation safety board
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concluded that willie odom had gotten
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lost in the heavy fog as he piloted the
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marvella up the mobile river
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with no maps or compass on board
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odom wasn't trained to read the boat's
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radar
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he mistakenly veered left onto the bio
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cannot
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instead of continuing up the mobile
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river
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odom then
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mistook the radar image of the bridge
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for another tow barge
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as he tried to maneuver towards it his
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front left barge struck the concrete
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south pier
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the other two barges struck the bridge
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itself knocking the bridge and the train
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track 48 inches out of alignment
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when odom struck the bridge
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he didn't know it in part because he
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couldn't see the bridge through the fog
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since it was unlighted
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odom mistakenly believed
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he had run aground
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inexplicably
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the collision bent the track in an s
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shape but didn't break it which explains
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why the electrical current running
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through the tracks didn't break either
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had the track been severed sure that
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signal would have gone off down the line
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and would have been a warning in mobile
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that something was wrong at the track
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over by you counter
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coast guard records showed the movilla
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struck the bridge only eight minutes
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before the sunset limited arrived
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as the engineer headed towards the
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bridge he saw a green light telling him
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the track ahead was all clear
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as the train approached i believe that
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the
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engine
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derailed just as it was getting to the
00:18:05
portion of the bridge that had been
00:18:06
moved sideways
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and
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it hit that portion of the bridge
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dragging the entire bridge along with
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the engines
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and destroying it it's a big piece of
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steel out on the bridge
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and the train struck it at 72 miles an
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hour and then from that you can tell
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that it just tore the hell out of it
00:18:28
as the track collapsed the lead engine
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and the next four cars flew into the
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water
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some of the passenger cars stopped on
00:18:38
the bridge
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or the fatality count might have been
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higher
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tragically
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the train was running about a half hour
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late due to the stop to repair the air
00:18:48
conditioning
00:18:50
had the train been on time
00:18:53
it would have crossed the bridge
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before the movilla ran into it
00:18:58
i think this investigation just
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confirmed for me a couple of
00:19:02
long-standing
00:19:03
philosophies that i've had
00:19:05
one is that every accident
00:19:08
is a kind of a chain reaction there's
00:19:10
five or six links in the chain that all
00:19:12
have to happen in order for an accident
00:19:16
to happen
00:19:17
they never did put in
00:19:20
the
00:19:20
same amount of tie-downs at the ends of
00:19:24
the bridge to hold it in place
00:19:27
therefore it wasn't as resistant to
00:19:30
a barge hitting it as it would have been
00:19:32
if they had
00:19:34
tied it down at the ends better
00:19:37
people cause accidents and that was
00:19:40
clearly the case here
00:19:42
the lord is my shepherd therefore can i
00:19:45
lack nothing
00:19:46
he feeds me in a green pasture and
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leaves me beside the waters
00:19:54
a year after the accident
00:19:56
survivors gathered to remember those who
00:19:59
lost their lives
00:20:01
by then new regulations were in place to
00:20:04
prevent similar accidents
00:20:08
tug boats are now required to have radar
00:20:10
on board and all operators are required
00:20:13
to have formal training and how to use
00:20:15
it
00:20:17
the boats are also required to have a
00:20:18
compass on board as well as the
00:20:21
necessary maps and river charts
00:20:23
[Music]
00:20:25
if the marvella had only had a compass
00:20:28
on board
00:20:29
this accident might never have happened
00:20:32
had there been a compass
00:20:34
willy oda might have realized he was
00:20:36
making a left turn
00:20:38
and not gone down the the wrong channel
00:20:40
into bayou cannot
00:20:43
there's also a requirement for all
00:20:45
bridges to have lighting even those on
00:20:48
waterways closed to commercial traffic
00:20:52
willie odom was cleared of any criminal
00:20:54
charges
00:20:56
but he never again piloted a tugboat
00:20:59
i think my
00:21:00
main interest in
00:21:02
all of the jobs i get into is to
00:21:05
determine
00:21:06
what went wrong
00:21:08
so that we can learn
00:21:10
from
00:21:11
the bad things that have happened in the
00:21:13
past
00:21:14
and
00:21:15
do better in the future
00:21:17
i can't prevent what's happened but if i
00:21:20
learn lessons from it and then make
00:21:22
changes in rules regulations and
00:21:24
procedures i've done a lot to prevent
00:21:27
that next one from happening
00:21:30
[Music]
