NTSB Determines Probable Cause of Fatal September 2022 UP Collision
According to NTSB, contributing to the cause of the accident, which killed a UP engineer and conductor, were:
- “The Bertram siding track not being spiked or clamped, as UP rules require for tracks where railcars are being stored long-term.
- “The surface rush on the rails and wheels of the stored railcars that degraded the performance of the track circuit in Bertram siding and caused the computer-aided dispatching system to inaccurately indicate the siding was unoccupied.”
On Sept. 8, 2022, about 2:40 a.m. local time, a conductor and engineer of UP train ISILB5-07 were killed when the train collided with railcars stored in a siding in Imperial County, Calif.
“Train ISILB5-07 had been traveling timetable eastbound on main track 2 of the Yuma Subdivision when, because of a change of route plans, the train reversed direction into Bertram siding, a signal-controlled siding at milepost 646.1,” according to NTSB.
“Upon entering the siding, with helper locomotives in the lead, the train traveled about 802 feet before colliding with a string of 74 empty intermodal railcars that had been stored in the siding since December 2021. The two lead locomotives and one intermodal railcar of train ISILB5-07 derailed, along with two of the empty stored intermodal railcars.
“Visibility conditions at the time of the accident were dark and clear with a haze near the ground, there was no precipitation, and the temperature was 86°F. UP estimated damage to track and equipment to be about $1.2 million,” NTSB reported.
