USA: Questions remain unanswered in Amtrak crash

Unanswered questions have continued to tax investigators probing the events surrounding the wreck of the

Photo: AP Photo Crash investigators simulate the accident

'City of New Orleans' on Monday March 15, 1999.

Eleven people died in the accident which occurred near Bourbonnais, Illinois at about 21.47. The Amtrak train was close to 2 hours into its overnight run to New Orleans when it struck a flatbed semi-trailer truck carrying heavy steel rods. The truck had just left the nearby Birmingham Steel Corporation's mill when it entered the crossing on McKnight road into the path of the oncoming train.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), in trying to establish what happened must address an number of questions in the face of conflicting evidence. Central to their inquiries is at what point the truck moved onto the crossing - before, during or after the warning bells and lights had started.

• There is physical evidence - tyre tracks which may have been made by the truck the angle of the truck at the moment of impact and crossing gates which had been sheared off suggest that the the truck may have zig-zagged its way through the crossing.
• At least two of the witnesses who have been interviewed by the NTSB have indicated that the truck entered the crossing while the lights were flashing, but before the gates had descended.
• Another witness, who speaks little English, has been interviewed twice. In his first interview, he seemed to suggest that the truck entered the crossing before the lights began to flash. His second interview has been interpretted as indicating that it entered after the lights came on.
• The train's engineer is reported to have said that the truck was on the crossing as the lights were flashing. He has only recently been discharged from hospital and NTSB investigators are waiting to interview him again.

The crash at Bourbonnais is believed to be the first train/truck accident in which rail passengers have been killed. The crossing is on tracks owned by the Illinois Central Railroad and is used by 40 trains and around 1800 road vehicles each day. It has been the site of three other fatalities, in 1964, 1968 and 1988.