Amtrak Conductor One of Six Killed in Reno Train Accident with 18 Wheeler Truck

June 27th, 2011 |

RENO, NV – The Amtrak conductor who was killed in last Friday’s deadly Reno train accident with an 18 wheeler truck has been identified as Amtrak employee, Laurette Lee.

Amtrak told KOLO 8 News that Lee was a conductor and a long-time employee. She began working with the company in 1988 and worked out of Amtrak’s Reno crew base.

Amtrak’s California Zephyr was en route from Chicago to Emeryville, Calif., with some 200 passengers and 14 crew members when the accident occurred late Friday morning about 300 miles east of its destination.

The incident occurred when a truck driver tried to stop his 18 wheeler before it slammed into the side of an Amtrak passenger car, killing him and 5 other people on the train and injuring about 20 others in the fiery crash, authorities said Saturday. The truck driver worked for the John Davis Trucking Co., of Battle Mountain, Nevada.

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Investigators at the scene about 70 miles east of Reno found skid marks at the railroad crossing on U.S. 95, indicating the driver tried to stop his tractor trailer before Friday’s crash, Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Dan Lopez said.

“They have measured the skid marks, and it should be able to tell us what speed he was driving at the time of the accident,” Lopez said, adding he was unsure of the speed.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Six people were killed and 28 remain unaccounted for in the fiery collision of a semi-trailer and an Emeryville-bound Amtrak train in the Nevad desert, officials said late Saturday.

It wasn’t until Saturday afternoon that the wreckage was safe enough to allow search teams to enter the burned-out hulks of two passenger cars in the 10-car train that exploded in a fireball on Friday.

A team of 18 investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board is examining the wreckage, but they don’t yet have a full explanation of why the crash occurred.

Two other truck drivers watched in horror and disbelief as the lead semi-tractor trailer in their convoy failed to stop for flashing warning signals and plowed into the train, the federal investigators said.

” The two other trucks noticed the signs and took action,” NTSB member Earl Weener said at a briefing. “The lead truck did not stop.”

Two rail cars that were badly charred in the accident remained on the tracks near the crash site, 70 miles east of Reno.

Comments:

Truck accident lawyers, Gordon, Elias & Seely say that there is tremendous difference in size and weight between trucks or 18 wheelers and automobiles often result in death or permanent and serious personal injuries. A big rig or 18 wheeler usually weighs in excess of 80,000 pounds and the tractor trailer combination may be over 70 feet long, therefore, its stopping distance takes far longer than a car. Too often, catastrophic and fatal accidents are caused by the negligence of the truck driver, evidenced by:

Inattentiveness to construction zone signs or changes in traffic
Driver distractions
Following too closely
Other human errors [fatigue, drunk driving, DUI, etc.]

California cities near Nevada with a high incident of big rig, semi truck and 18 wheeler accidents include Brentwood, Oakland, Sacramento and San Jose to name a few.

Published by FELA lawyer news blog at Gordon, Elias & Seely, LLP