After fatal Colorado train derailment, investigators focus on railway inspection practices
An investigation into a Colorado coal train derailment and bridge collapse that killed a truck driver is focused on whether inspection and maintenance practices at BNSF Railway contributed to the accident, federal officials said Thursday.
The steel bridge built in 1958 collapsed onto Interstate 25 on Oct 15, when a broken rail caused 30 cars from a BNSF Railway train hauling coal to derail, the National Transportation Safety Board said based on preliminary findings.
The accident just north of the city of Pueblo closed the main north-south highway through Colorado for four days while crews cleared hundreds of tons of coal and mangled railcars.
Killed in the accident was Lafollette Henderson, 60, of Compton, California, who had been driving under the bridge.
The BNSF train was travelling about 32 mph — below the 45 mph limit for the area, the NTSB said.
Broken rails and other track problems are a leading cause of derailments, according to federal accident data. In July, federal investigators blamed poor track conditions along a BNSF route in Montana for the 2021 derailment of an Amtrak train that killed three people and injured 49 others.
BNSF, based in Fort Worth, Texas, conducted track infrastructure testing and visual inspections of the rail line in the area of the Colorado bridge collapse within the last three months, said spokesperson Kendall Kirkham Sloan. That included an inspection on the day of the accident, Sloan said.