COLLISION OF READING COMPANY COMMUTER TRAIN AND TRACTOR-SEMITRAILER NEAR YARDLEY, PENNSYLVANIA, JUNE 5, 1975

About 11:06 p.m. on June 5, 1975, a Reading Company commuter train struck a tractor-semitrailer (truck) at a grade crossing near Yardley, Pennsylvania. The truck was transporting three coils of steel, two of which penetrated the first commuter car. The three occupants of the lead car were killed and an occupant of the second car was injured slightly. The truck driver was uninjured. The semitrailer was torn from the tractor and damaged beyond repair and the lead commuter car was damaged extensively. At the time of the collision, the automatic grade crossing signal system was functioning. The truck driver said he had not seen or heard the warning signals. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was the failure of the truck driver to stop the truck in accordance with the warning signals.

• Corporate Authors:

  National Transportation Safety Board

  Office of Surface Transportation Safety
  Washington, DC  United States  20594
• Publication Date: 1976-3-3

Media Info

• Pagination: 26 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alertness; Attention; Crash investigation; Crashes; Fatalities; Human factors engineering; Intersections; Loss and damage; Passenger transportation; Railroad signals; Railroads; Trucks; Warning systems
• Subject Areas: Motor Carriers; Passenger Transportation; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00133320
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: NTSB-RAR-76-4, SS-R-38
• Files: NTIS
• Created Date: Jun 23 2002 12:00AM