Railroad Investigation Report: Union Pacific Railroad Head-On Collision with Stationary Intermodal Railcars, Imperial County, California, September 8, 2022

​On September 8, 2022, about 2:40 a.m. local time, a conductor and engineer of Union Pacific Railroad (UP) train ISILB5-07 were killed when the train collided with railcars stored in a siding in Imperial County, California. 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. 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. ​​​The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the probable cause of the Imperial County, California, collision was the routing of Union Pacific Railroad train ISILB5-07 into Bertram siding, which was occupied by 74 empty intermodal railcars, made possible by the inappropriate removal of a computer-aided dispatching system block on the siding at the dispatch center. Contributing to the cause of the accident were: (1) the Bertram siding track not being spiked or clamped, as Union Pacific Railroad rules require for tracks where railcars are being stored long-term, and (2) the surface rust 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.

• Record URL:
  • https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/RIR2407.pdf
• Summary URL:
  • https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Pages/RRD22LR014.aspx
• Corporate Authors:

  National Transportation Safety Board

  Washington, DC  United States 
• Publication Date: 2024-8-19

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Maps; Photos; References;
• Pagination: 16p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash causes; Crash investigation; Dispatching; Fatalities; Railroad crashes; Rusting
• Geographic Terms: Imperial County (California)
• Subject Areas: Railroads; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01929960
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: RIR-24-07, Investigation ID RRD22LR014
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 11 2024 9:17AM