Southwest Chief Derails In Kansas

Backshophoss wrote:That's one heck of a "wrong turn",would like to read the interview and that driver's log book,
and what the drug test results are.

Amtrak and BNSF have already filed a lawsuit against Cimarron Crossing Feeders, LLC. KWCH news report: Amtrak suing Cimarron cattle company regarding train derailment.

The claim is that no one was driving the truck. Instead the unattended truck rolled downhill, crossed State highway 50, and hit the track bed, coming to a stop. Excerpt from the KWCH article:

Court documents show Amtrak is alleging Cimarron Crossing Feeders employees left a feed truck unattended, out of gear and without the brakes on. It said that truck rolled downhill and hit the track causing damage "that resulted in a displacement of the railroad tracks of over one foot."

Amtrak is accusing the employees of removing the truck from the track area without telling anyone about the damage the truck caused to the tracks.

The link to 7 page initial complaint filed by Amtrak and BNSF is provided in the KWCH article which provides a short summary of what Amtrak and BNSF claims took place.

That Feedlot company will get a visit from the Ks Highway Patrol,Every Truck will inspected,taken out of service if required
for equipment problems,every CDL Driver log book will be checked along with Med cards,etc.
Drivers with problems will be OOS'ed as well.
Truck maintaince records will be checked
I find it hard to believe this Feedlot Company was that dumb to SAY NOTHING to BNSF about the track damage
and the truck DID NOT have a working Spring Brake(no air/brake applied)
The ONLY good news out of this,that the runaway truck did not hit anything on US 50.
DO Not be suprised if they go BANKRUPT real quick!

My BS detector is pinging on this one.

If the truck rolled away unattended, it should have still been there and likely been struck by the train as well.

JLJ061 wrote:My BS detector is pinging on this one.

If the truck rolled away unattended, it should have still been there and likely been struck by the train as well.

If you read points 18 and 19 on page 3 of the complaint that afiggatt posted the link to, Amtrak and BNSF allege that the workers retrieved the truck (trespassing in so doing) and failed to tell the railroads, law enforcement or anyone else about the accident or potential for track damage - basically trying to act as though nothing happened. If the events articulated in the lawsuit are true, they're lucky they didn't cause a lot more damage to property and people than they did.

What most likely happened,1 of the "farm hands" saw this truck start to roll away,and said something,
was too late to stop it,and watched it roll across US 50 toward the track till the front bumper was caught by the rail.
then went to retrive that truck away from the track,not knowing that the track was damaged(it always looks
wavey,who cares) and so as to not get the boss mad,said nothing.
WELL,that little kink put 4 superliners on their sides and hurt people,caused by an unmaintained/unsafe truck.
and an old time"family" business goes "belly up" in the process.

The above comment is a possabilty of what happened with the runaway truck,if the truck was properly maintained
the Spring Brakes on the drive axle would have "locked up" the wheels from moving,or shut off the motor,leaving
the tranny in gear would have kept the truck from moving.
This was completely "AVOIDABLE" accident

Not clear the family business goes belly up. The trucks must be insured for liability or they wouldn't be on the road. The insurance will pay the policy limit. If that's not enough to cover the damages, the business should be put in receivership and sold off. The owners could lose their equity, but hopefully a new owner will fix the trucks and keep the staff employed. Nobody benefits by destroying the business.

So who looses in the bankruptcy ?. The creditors, banks, and ultimately the government. All the losses by the various creditors will be written off as a tax loss .

The trucking insurance liability limits are rediculusly low. To operate in Interstate Commerce, the limits are 500K. Possibly the Kansas regulatory agency requires more, but I wouldn't bet on that.

The NTSB has released its report on the Cimarron, KS derailment. Unsurprisingly, the probable cause was the feedtruck rolling into the tracks:

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the derailment was the agriculture truck driver’s failure to properly secure his unattended truck, which rolled downhill and struck the BNSF railroad tracks causing them to misalign. Contributing to the accident was the failure of the truck’s driver and his supervisor to report the incident to the local authorities.

https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Acc ... AB1710.pdf