RAILROAD ACCIDENT REPORT: REAR END COLLISION OF SOUTHERN PACIFIC TRANSPORTATION COMPANY FREIGHT TRAINS 02-HOLAT-21 AND 01-BSMFK-20, THOUSAND PALMS, CALIFORNIA, JULY 24, 1979

About 4:03 a.m., on July 24, 1979, Extra 7810 West (01-BSMFK-20) collided with the rear of Extra 8484 West (02-HOLAT-21) while it was standing in a siding at Thousand Palms, California. Both trains were owned by the Southern Pacific Transportation Company (SP). The engineer died following the collision as a result of smoke and fire, and four crewmembers were injured. Damage was estimated at $1,479,700. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the failure of the engineer, whose performance was significantly impaired by alcohol, to stop his train as required by the stop aspect displayed by the interlocking home signal at Thousand Palms and the failure of the head brakeman to take emergency action to stop the train before it collided with the standing train.

• Corporate Authors:

  National Transportation Safety Board

  Bureau of Accident Investigation, 800 Independence Avenue, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20594
• Publication Date: 1980-2-14

Media Info

• Pagination: 22 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alcoholic beverages; Alcoholism; Compliance; Crash investigation; Crash reports; Crashes; Fatalities; Fires; Freight cars; Human factors; Injuries; Locomotive engineers; Locomotives; Loss and damage; Operating rules; Railroad signals; Railroad tracks; Railroads; Rear end crashes; Signalization; Supervision; Training; Vigilance
• Identifier Terms: Southern Pacific Railroad
• Geographic Terms: California
• Old TRIS Terms: Interlocking; Signal aspects
• Subject Areas: Education and Training; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00317927
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: NTSB-RAR-80-1
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 22 1980 12:00AM