Commuter Railroad acccident October 30th 1972

I heard that 40 people were killed on the two trains and a couple hundred were injured durign rush hour whne a larger bi level train hit a single level train. what exactly happened? I saw one picture and there were cars from both tains crushed and mangled beyond recognition.

I can help you but Can I get back to you later on this?

AmtrakFan

alright. Do you have any articles with pics of the disaster? I only saw one so far and it looked quite bad.

Here's a link but no Photos but I'll look some more http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/dis ... crash.html

The accident happened too late to be included in those compiled on the FRA's website, but I remember the principal cause being listed as the crew of the first train overshooting a scheduled stop, then backing up against the current of traffic on trackage signalled for one direction only. This practice is strictly forbidden without train orders (Form D in current practice) in anybody's Book of Rules.

The severity of the carnage was magnified by the fact that the following train was one of the older "squarehead" MU's, and telescoped the wider, taller, lighter, thinner-skinned "Highliner".

As an afterthought, I believe NJT issued special restrictions delaying implementation of new equipment on the former DL&W lines in the late 1970's until enough had arrived to preclude a similar accident involving the aged Lackawanna MU's.