Accident Report Detail

​On Thursday, October 16, 2014, at 10:25 a.m. central daylight time, a northbound Arkansas & Missouri Railroad Company (A&M) work train locomotive (work train) collided with a stopped southbound A&M excursion train at milepost (MP) 368.25 in Brentwood, Arkansas.1 The excursion train stopped because it had lost track adhesion and was not able to move up the 1.1 percent grade. The work train traveled north to rescue the stopped excursion train and collided with the excursion train. The work train’s speed at impact was about 24 mph. Thirty-nine passengers and four A&M employees were transported to local hospitals and medical centers with non-life-threatening injuries. One of the damaged passenger cars released about 40 gallons of diesel fuel from a generator fuel tank, but the fuel did not ignite. The A&M estimated the damages at $178,500. At the time of the collision the wind was calm with scattered clouds, and the temperature was 66°F.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was the failure of the work train crew to comply with the restricted speed requirement that limited train speed to no more than 20 mph and their failure to be prepared to stop within one-half the range of vision when approaching the stopped excursion train. Contributing to the accident were the informal communications of the train dispatcher and both train crews.