1993 Wreck of the Sunset Limited ?

[Joe]

Tonight, Tuesday March 1, 2005, at 9 P.M. E.S.T., The National Geographic Channel will show a 1 hour documentary on it's show called Seconds From Disaster.

The Wreck of the Sunset Limited: On Sept. 22, 1993 an Amtrak train derails near Mobile, Ala. killing 47 people.

Joe P.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

I was not able to watch that.

But as I recall, isn't the one which turned out to be something about a barge or tugboat operator lost in the fog, some unfortunate incident like that? (oops, yes, I guess so, just saw something about it on another forum)

Then didn't the Sunset have yet another wreck much further west, (not long after the one above) which was suspected of being foul play, but never proven, right?

 

[jccollins]

Yes, you're right about the incident. It was a very powerful documentary and clearly explained what had happened. A barge hit the bridge eight minutes before the Sunset Limited arrived and knocked the center section out of alignment. The center section was not actually bolted down as it should have been because the bridge was originally designed to be a swing bridge, although it never operated that way. One of the barge's three pieces hit one of the bridge's concrete supports, not damaging it, but the middle part of the barge hit the middle section of the bridge and swung it open 38 inches. The detectors didn't go off to stop the train because the rail had not broken, but had just bent out of shape.

The incident further west (in Arizona, right?) was not shown on the documentary, but I remember it vaguely from a few years ago. I thought it had been determined that it was sabotage that had caused that, but I am not entirely sure.

 

[lepearso]

I saw a similar documentary on Court TV several weeks ago. It was very interesting, though it brought back some terrible memories.

One thing I learned from the documentary is that the Federal Government passed a whole new set of safety regulations for bridges and barges, even on waterways that are not considered navigable, like the Bayou Canot where the Sunset accident happened.

 

[battalion51]

The Hyder incident was indeed sabotage, as a note was found a few hundred feet away. In that incident a wire was placed between the two pieces of rail maintaining electrical current through the track and wire. Then the tracks were misaligned allowing the train to derail, but not have the signals drop out.