Railroad Accident Summary Report: Collision of Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad Freight Train and 19 Stationary Railcars, Bettendorf, Iowa, July 14, 2009

On July 14, 2009, about 2:08 a.m., central daylight time, southbound Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad freight train B61-13 went into Bettendorf Yard in Bettendorf, Iowa, due to a misaligned switch and struck 19 stationary railcars. The impact fatally injured the locomotive engineer and the conductor. There were no wayside signals or other devices to convey the position of the hand-operated switch on the main track leading into the north yard sufficiently in advance to allow the approaching train to stop. The train was moving at the authorized speed of 25 mph and was operating under valid track warrant authority. Track warrants are authorizations issued by a dispatcher for a train to occupy a certain segment of track for a certain period of time. Track warrant authority is obtained and released through communication between train crews and the dispatcher.

• Record URL:
  http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/RAR1203.pdf
• 
• Summary URL:
  http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Pages/RAR1203.aspx
• Corporate Authors:

  National Transportation Safety Board

  490 L'Enfant Plaza, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20594
• Publication Date: 2012-4-30

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures;
• Pagination: 28p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash causes; Crash characteristics; Crash investigation; Railroad crashes; Railroad safety
• Geographic Terms: Iowa
• Subject Areas: Railroads; Safety and Human Factors; I80: Accident Studies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01446261
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: NTSB/RAR-12/03/SUM, Notation 8396
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 14 2012 11:16AM