Amtrak train #58, the northbound City of New Orleans, has derailed 25 miles north of Jackson City, Mississippi.
CNN's report indicates that a single passenger, a 68-year-old woman, has died and that there are 60 injured. Amtrak's press release states that four people were admitted to local hospitals.
Before we go any further, let me raise a flag in defense of Amtrak. I am almost certain that there will be some in the blogosphere who will immediately harangue Amtrak for this accident, and demand that it be put out of business, or bash the passenger rail service all together.
If one rules out sabotage, then there are two broad possibilities for liability as I see them:
1. Amtrak, through fault of the train crew---mainly the engineers---or through defective Amtrak equipment, which would be the motive power or the cars in the consist.
2. The Canadian National Railway, because it's their track upon which the City of New Orleans was travelling.
It is important to understand that Amtrak (more accurately the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) does not, for the most part, travel upon its own rails to get from point A to point B. The private freight railroads maintain ownership of almost all the track that Amtrak provides service over.1
Since Amtrak does not own the tracks where the City of New Orleans derailed, Amtrak cannot be held responsible (broadly) if the rails and related infrastructure failed. It is the responsibility of the freight railroads to provide "maintenance of way" to keep the rails---which they own outright---safe for transportation. Maintenance of way is expensive, alas, and it is often deferred, with negative results. Neither the best equipment in the world nor the best crew in the world can keep a train on a rail that breaks or that is worn out to the point of providing no surface for the flanged wheel to roll upon.
My initial reaction to the accident, after reading the CNN report, is to be highly suspicious of the rails themselves. I base this upon the following statement: "A train carrying hazardous chemicals crashed on the same section of tracks in 1997, forcing the evacuation of about 4,000 people. Three other freight trains have derailed within a five-mile stretch -- one in 1986 and two in 1994."
A brief bit of research in rail enthusiast circles indicates that as of 1995, the CN had performed significant maintenance on the line. However, a later passenger on Amtrak's train 58/59 indicated that the rails were in bad shape. Since there was a switch in 1995 to welded rail, that would indicate heavy maintenance of the rails themselves and the bed upon which they rest. Therefore, accidents prior to 1995 (i.e. three of the four reported) are irrelevant. In any event, the National Transportation Safety Board will discover the reason(s) for the accident. I'll probably post the link to the final report when it is issued.
This does not function as a particularly legalistic analysis other than to try and frame the issues properly; I'm not yet a lawyer and I'm most certainly not competent---yet!---to provide counsel on transportation liability. I left out General Electric and the manufacturer of the passenger equipment, primarily because I doubt that there is any products liability question present. The "Genesis" series of locomotives is safe, and coaches of the Superliner type have been in operation since the early 1980s. See above about the certainty of accident where maintenance is not practiced.
If you are the praying type, I would suggest that the crew, passengers, and their families should be included in your activities of this sort.
1 In no particular order, CSX Transportation, the Norfolk Southern Railway, the Union Pacific Railroad, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, the Canadian National Railway, and the Canadian Pacific Railway own the majority of Amtrak's route miles. On the other hand, Amtrak owns the "Northeast Corridor", the former Pennsylvania Railroad/Penn Central line from Washington to Boston, along with something in Michigan of which I know nothing.
Posted by Country Pundit at April 7, 2004 02:50 PM