On September 22, 1993, an

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...

train derailed on the

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

Big Bayou Canot Bridge near

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 census. It is the fourth-most-populous city in Alabama ...

, United States. It was caused by displacement of a span and deformation of the rails when a tow of heavy

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels. ...

s collided with the rail bridge eight minutes earlier. Forty-seven people were killed and 103 more were injured. To date, it is both the deadliest

train wreck A train wreck, train collision, train accident or train crash is a type of disaster involving one or more trains. Train wrecks often occur as a result of miscommunication, as when a moving train meets another train on the same track; or an acci ...

in Amtrak's history and the worst rail disaster in the United States since the 1958 Newark Bay rail accident in which 48 people died.

Events

Immediately prior to the accident, a barge being pushed by the

towboat A pusher, pusher craft, pusher boat, pusher tug, or towboat, is a boat designed for pushing barges or car floats. In the United States, the industries that use these vessels refer to them as towboats. These vessels are characterized by a squar ...

''Mauvilla'' (owned and operated by Warrior and Gulf Navigation of

Chickasaw, Alabama Chickasaw is a city in Mobile County, Alabama, Mobile County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the population was 6,457, up from 6,106 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Mobile metropolitan area. Histor ...

) had made a wrong turn on the

Mobile River The Mobile River is located in southern Alabama in the United States. Formed out of the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, the approximately river drains an area of of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georg ...

and entered the Big Bayou Canot, an un-navigable channel of water crossed by a CSX Transportation rail bridge. The towboat's pilot, Willie Odom, was not properly trained on how to read his

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, Marine radar, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor v ...

and so, due to very poor visibility in heavy fog and his lack of experience, did not realize he was off course. The boat also lacked a

compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with ...

and a chart of the waters. Odom believed that he was still on the Mobile River and had identified the bridge in the radar as another tug boat. After the investigation, he was not found to be criminally liable for the accident. The bridge was struck by the ''Mauvilla'' at about 2:45 a.m. The span had been designed to rotate so it could be converted to a

swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span (turning span) can then pi ...

by adding suitable equipment. No such conversion had ever been performed but the span had not been adequately secured against unintended movement. The collision forced the unsecured end of the bridge span approximately out of alignment and severely kinked the track. At 2:53 a.m., Amtrak's ''

Sunset Limited The ''Sunset Limited'' is an Amtrak passenger train that for most of its history has operated between New Orleans and Los Angeles, over the nation's second transcontinental route. However, up until Hurricane Katrina in 2005, it operated betw ...

'' train, powered by three

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the ...

s (one GE Genesis P40DC number 819 in the front and two

EMD F40PH The EMD F40PH is a four-axle B-B diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division in several variants from 1975 to 1992. Intended for use on Amtrak's short-haul passenger routes, it became the backbone of Amtrak's ...

s, numbers 262 and 312) en route from

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, to

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

, with 220 passengers and crew aboard, crossed the bridge at around and derailed at the kink. The first of its three locomotives slammed into the displaced span, causing that part of the bridge to collapse into the water beneath. The lead locomotive embedded itself nose-first into the canal bank and the other two locomotives, together with the

baggage car A passenger railroad car or passenger car (United States), also called a passenger carriage, passenger coach (United Kingdom and International Union of Railways), or passenger bogie (India) is a railroad car that is designed to carry passeng ...

sleeping car The sleeping car or sleeper (often ) is a railway passenger car that can accommodate all passengers in beds of one kind or another, for the purpose of sleeping. George Pullman was the American innovator of the sleeper car. The first such cars ...

and two of the six

passenger car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...

s, plunged into the water. The locomotives' fuel tanks, each of which held several thousand gallons of diesel fuel, ruptured upon impact, resulting in a massive fuel spill and a fire. Forty-seven people, 42 of whom were passengers, were killed many by

drowning Drowning is a type of suffocation induced by the submersion of the mouth and nose in a liquid. Most instances of fatal drowning occur alone or in situations where others present are either unaware of the victim's situation or unable to offer as ...

, others by fire/smoke inhalation. Another 103 were injured. The towboat's four crew members were not injured. Odom helped save seventeen people after the crash using the same towboat that had been pushing the barge that hit the bridge. Despite the displacement of the bridge, the continuously welded rails did not break. As a result, the

track circuit A track circuit is an electrical device used to prove the absence of a train on rail tracks to signallers and control relevant signals. An alternative to track circuits are axle counters. Principles and operation The basic principle behind ...

controlling the bridge approach

block signals Railway signalling (), also called railroad signaling (), is a system used to control the movement of railway traffic. Trains move on fixed rails, making them uniquely susceptible to collision. This susceptibility is exacerbated by the enormo ...

remained closed (intact) and the nearest signal continued to display a clear (green) aspect. Had one of the rails been severed by the bridge's displacement, the track circuit would have opened, causing the approach signal to display a stop (red) aspect and the preceding signal an amber (caution) approach indication. This might have given the Amtrak engineer sufficient time to stop his train or at least reduce its speed in an effort to minimize the accident's severity.

Fatal delay

An episode of the

National Geographic Channel National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney General ...

documentary series '' Seconds From Disaster'' examined the accident. In addition to corroborating findings of the official accident report, the program revealed that the train had been delayed in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

by repairs to an air conditioner unit and a toilet. This had put it a half-hour behind schedule. If not for this delay, the ''Sunset Limited'' would have passed over the Big Bayou Canot bridge twenty minutes before the bridge was hit by the barge.
Wreck of the Sunset Limited
' episode of 'Seconds from Disaster', at

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

, 10 August 2004

Aftermath

As a result of its investigation of this accident, the

National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and inci ...

(NTSB) made a comprehensive series of recommendations, on September 19, 1994, to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

, the U.S. Coast Guard, the

Federal Emergency Management Agency The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Ex ...

, Amtrak, the American Waterways Operators, Inc., the Warrior & Gulf Navigation Company, the Association of American Railroads, and the American Short Line Railroad Association. Following a recommendation to maintain a record of onboard passenger numbers, Amtrak now records passenger lists electronically.

Notable passengers

* Eleven-year-old wheelchair user Andrea Chancey, the "miracle child" with

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, stiff muscles, weak muscles, and tremors. There may be problems with sens ...

whose parents both died in the crash. * Ken Ivory and Michael Dopheide, honored by the

Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...

for saving lives after the crash. * Christian theologian

R. C. Sproul Robert Charles Sproul ( ; February 13, 1939 – December 14, 2017) was an American Reformed theologian and ordained pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America. He was the founder and chairman of Ligonier Ministries (named for the Ligonier ...

, who discussed his experience of the crash on occasion.

References

External links

* Holloway, Davi
Mobile Press-Register 200th Anniversary: Sunset Limited train wreck memories not diminished by passing years
at al.com, 1 July 2013. Retrieved 3 June 2014 * Sproul, R. C.br>Train Wreck
Eyewitness account of aftermath, at

Ligonier Ministries Ligonier Ministries (also known as simply Ligonier) is an international Christian discipleship organization headquartered in the greater Orlando, Florida area. Ligonier was founded in 1971 by R. C. Sproul in the Ligonier Valley, Pennsylvania, o ...