Fatal train crash puts spotlight on CSX railroad crew

Federal investigators looking into the cause of a fatal train collision near Cayce are interviewing members of the CSX railroad crew that had parked a freight train on a side track where the wreck occurred, a state official familiar with the investigation said.

Tom Allen, who heads the Office of Regulatory Staff’s railroad safety division, said the National Transportation Safety Board, his agency and the Federal Railroad Administration started interviews Monday morning. The interviews are standard procedure after any fatal train wreck.

“I’m not sure when they are going to be completed, but they are ongoing,’’ Allen said of the interviews.

The crew members, whose names were not immediately available, could provide crucial information that would help investigators understand why a track switch apparently was in the wrong position early Sunday.

The switch diverted an Amtrak train, carrying more than 100 passengers, off the main rail line and onto a side track, where the 34-car CSX train was parked. Two members of the Amtrak crew died in the collision and more than 100 were injured. The Amtrak train, traveling between New York and Miami, had seven passenger cars.

Keith Holloway, a spokesman for the NTSB, had no comment on the interviews, except to say they were scheduled. A CSX official, who was not authorized to speak on the issue, said the company is working with federal investigators.

CSX operates about 1,800 miles of track in South Carolina, maintaining 1,750 public and private grade crossings, according to the company’s website.

Holloway said the NTSB had retrieved at least one of the data recorders from a train involved in the wreck.

NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt said Sunday that human error played a role in the train wreck. CSX, as owner of the track, was responsible for making sure the track switch was in the right position. But Sumwalt said it was locked in the wrong position, which sent the Amtrak train off course.

He told reporters the accident “was indeed a tragic human error.’’

CSX has not disputed the facts in the case.

The Cayce train wreck, in some ways, is similar to a disastrous Norfolk Southern train crash in Graniteville 13 years ago. That wreck left nine dead after a train crew failed to return a track switch in the proper position.

In Graniteville, a freight train ran off the main line and smashed into parked rail cars. The nine deaths were attributed to a cloud of toxic chlorine that was released in the collision. Norfolk Southern, ultimately, fired the train’s crew.

Terry Richardson, a S.C. attorney whose firm has handled hundreds of railroad cases, said he expects lawsuits to be filed over the Cayce accident because deaths and injuries were involved.

This story was originally published February 5, 2018 at 2:06 PM with the headline "Fatal train crash puts spotlight on CSX railroad crew."