Big Bayou Canot rail accident


The wreck of the Sunset Limited at Big Bayou Canot

Date: September 22, 1993, 31 years ago; 2:53 am
Location: Mobile, Alabama, U.S.

The Big Bayou Canot rail accident was the derailing of an Amtrak train on the CSX Transportation Big Bayou Canot Bridge near Mobile, Alabama, United States, on September 22, 1993. It was caused by displacement of a span and deformation of the rails when a tow of heavy barges collided with the rail bridge eight minutes earlier. 47 people were killed and 103 more were injured. To date, it is both the deadliest train wreck in Amtrak's history and the worst rail disaster in the United States since the 1958 Newark Bay rail accident in which 48 lives were lost.

Events

Immediately prior to the accident, a barge being pushed by the towboat Mauvilla (owned and operated by Warrior and Gulf Navigation of Chickasaw, Alabama) had made a wrong turn on the Mobile River and entered the Big Bayou Canot, an un-navigable channel of water crossed by a CSX Transportation rail bridge.

The towboat's pilot, Willie Odom, was not properly trained on how to read his radar and so, due to very poor visibility in heavy fog and his lack of experience, did not realize he was off course. The boat also lacked a compass and a chart of the waters. Odom believed that he was still on the Mobile River and had identified the bridge in the radar as another tug boat. After the investigation, he was not found to be criminally liable for the accident.

The bridge was struck by the Mauvilla at about 2:45 am. The span had been designed to rotate so it could be converted to a swing bridge by adding suitable equipment. No such conversion had ever been performed but the span had not been adequately secured against unintended movement. The collision forced the unsecured end of the bridge span approximately three feet out of alignment and severely kinked the track.

At 2:53 a.m., Amtrak's Sunset Limited train, powered by three locomotives (one GE Genesis P40DC number 819 in the front and two EMD F40PHs, numbers 262 and 312) en route from Los Angeles, California to Miami, Florida with 220 passengers and crew aboard, crossed the bridge at around 70 miles per hour (113 km/h) and derailed at the kink. The first of its three locomotives slammed into the displaced span, causing that part of the bridge to collapse into the water beneath. The lead locomotive embedded itself nose-first into the canal bank and the other two locomotives, together with the baggage car, sleeping car and two of the six passenger cars, plunged into the water. The locomotives' fuel tanks, each of which held several thousand gallons of diesel fuel, ruptured upon impact, resulting in a massive fuel spill and a fire. Forty-seven people, 42 of whom were passengers, were killed – many by drowning, others by fire/smoke inhalation. Another 103 were injured. The towboat's four crew members were not injured. Odom helped save seventeen people after the crash using the same towboat that had been pushing the barge that hit the bridge. At the time of the derailment, the lead locomotive, number 819, had been in service with Amtrak for only twenty days.

Despite the displacement of the bridge, the continuously welded rails did not break. As a result, the track circuit controlling the bridge approach block signals remained closed (intact) and the nearest signal continued to display a clear (green) aspect. Had one of the rails been severed by the bridge's displacement, the track circuit would have opened, causing the approach signal to display a stop (red) aspect and the preceding signal an amber (caution) approach indication. This might have given the Amtrak engineer sufficient time to stop his train or at least reduce its speed in an effort to minimize the accident's severity.

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Mobile Real-Time News
Survivor of 1993 Alabama Amtrak crash still 'hears the screaming'
Published: Apr. 25, 2018, 2:54 p.m.


FILE - This Sept. 22, 1993, file photo shows the wreckage of the Amtrak Sunset Limited train, north of Mobile, Ala. A barge hit a railroad bridge and minutes later the train hit the bent tracks and plunged into the bayou, killing 47 people and injuring more than 100 others. A string of crashes involving Amtrak trains is rekindling memories for survivors of the passenger service's 1993 tragedy, its deadliest accident ever. (AP Photo/Mark Foley, File)

By The Associated Press
In the dark of night, three travelers advanced inexorably toward tragedy.

Accompanied by her parents on her first train trip, 11-year-old Andrea Chancey couldn't sleep despite the steady rocking of the Amtrak coach. Aboard the same train after missing a flight, Ken Ivory lounged nearby. Miles away, Willie C. Odom steered a towboat as it pushed barges up a river that was getting foggier by the mile.

A bump. A whoosh. A ball of fire. ... Suddenly, those three and more than 200 other people were caught up in what remains the deadliest accident in Amtrak history, the derailment of the Los Angeles-to-Miami Sunset Limited in a south Alabama bayou in 1993. Forty-seven people died and more than 100 others were hurt.

Nearly 25 years later, the survivors remember that night vividly: "I smell the oil. I see the fire. I hear the screaming," said Chancey, now 36. ... But many others forgot about the disaster as other tragedies occurred, one after the other, through the years.

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Nation & World
AP Exclusive: Deadliest Amtrak crash: Bump, whoosh, and fire

Originally published April 24, 2018 at 11:09 pm

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