Roanoke Times Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: THURSDAY, March 2, 1995 TAG: 9503020049 SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
All four remain off the job. The railroad has not released the names of any railroad employees involved.
"These guys are telling the absolute truth," said Dave Benson of the United Transportation Union, which represents some crew members. Tests of the crew for alcohol or drugs were negative, he said.
Benson also said Wednesday that transcripts of recorded radio transmissions verify that the crew reported the first of two go-ahead signals - as federal rules require - as the train approached the rail switch point where it collided with an eastbound unit. The switch point is where the double track merges into a single track.
The January collision - along a stretch of track that crosses the New River between Radford and Pulaski County - caused a massive derailment that put one locomotive nose-first into the water, derailed several cars and spilled fuel oil into the river. Damage exceeded $2.1 million.
"If they called out that signal, they saw that signal," Benson said, contending that the crash resulted from a failure on the part of the signaling system and not the crew. Benson said the crew did not broadcast the second signal because of heavy radio traffic right before the wreck.
Ben Blissett, chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers local that represents the train's engineer, has said the railroad is pointing a finger at the crew for failing to stop for the signals.
An investigation to determine the responsibility of the crew aboard the "112 westbound" continues. The probe involves Norfolk Southern Corp., the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Railroad Administration and unions representing the railroad workers. A formal report is not expected for at least two weeks.
Norfolk Southern spokesman Bob Auman has declined comment on the investigation, saying it would be premature. However, he confirmed Wednesday that radio messages between train crews and dispatchers are recorded at Norfolk Southern's computer-aided dispatching center on Kimball Avenue in Roanoke.
Mark Garcia, a senior investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board's regional office in Atlanta, said his office has sent the train's "speed tapes" - the equivalent of an aircraft's "black box" - to the agency's Washington, D.C., laboratories for analysis. The event recorders log several items, including the time, the train's speed, the pressure on the pneumatic braking system, the engine's power consumption, if and when brakes were applied, and other items, he said.
"It gives you a pretty good history."
Investigators will compare the analysis of the tapes with transcripts of interviews with the crew to see if they jibe.
Garcia said he has spoken with all six crew members on both trains as well as a dispatcher in Roanoke, but wouldn't reveal any details.
He's scheduled to be back in Roanoke on March 13 when Norfolk Southern resumes its investigation. He plans to sit in on company interviews with other dispatchers who have worked the same territory, to determine whether they ever have had signal problems.
Benson said his union still is trying to digest a sizable stack of inspection reports on the rail line's switch-signal system, done after the crash. He worries some "very obscure" malfunction - perhaps in a computerized system - could have caused the crash and that it could happen again.
"It scares the daylights out of me that I can't rely on a signal indication," he said.
by CNB