Big Bayou Canot rail accident

Immediately prior to the accident, a barge being pushed by the towboat Mauvilla (owned and operated by Warrior and Gulf Navigation of Chickasaw, Alabama) had made a wrong turn on the Mobile River 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 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 and a chart of the waters.[2] Odom believed that he was still on the Mobile River and had identified the bridge in the radar as another tug boat.[3] After the investigation, he was not found to be criminally liable for the accident.[3]

The bridge was struck by the Mauvilla at about 2:45 am. The span had been designed to rotate so it could be converted to a swing bridge 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 three feet out of alignment and severely kinked the track.[4][5]

At 2:53 a.m.,[1] Amtrak's Sunset Limited train, powered by three locomotives (one GE Genesis P40DC number 819 in the front and two EMD F40PHs, numbers 262 and 312) en route from Los Angeles, California, to Miami, Florida, with 220 passengers and crew aboard, crossed the bridge at around 70 miles per hour (113 km/h) 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, sleeping car and two of the six passenger cars, plunged into the water. The locomotives' fuel tanks, each of which held several thousand gallons of diesel fuel, ruptured upon impact,[1] resulting in a massive fuel spill and a fire. Forty-seven people, 42 of whom were passengers,[1] were killed – many by drowning, others by fire/smoke inhalation. Another 103 were injured. The towboat's four crew members were not injured.[1] Odom helped save seventeen people after the crash using the same towboat that had been pushing the barge that hit the bridge.[6] At the time of the derailment, the lead locomotive, number 819, had been in service with Amtrak for only twenty days.[7]

Despite the displacement of the bridge, the continuously welded rails did not break. As a result, the track circuit controlling the bridge approach block signals 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.

As a result of its investigation of this accident, the National Transportation Safety Board (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, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Amtrak, the American Waterways Operators, Inc., the Warrior & Gulf Navigation Company, the Association of American Railroads, and the American Short Line Railroad Association.[1] Following a recommendation to maintain a record of onboard passenger numbers, Amtrak now records passenger lists electronically.[4]

• Eleven year-old wheelchair-bound Andrea Chancey, the "miracle child" with cerebral palsy whose parents both died in the crash.[6]
• Ken Ivory and Michael Dopheide, honored by the Coast Guard for saving lives after the crash.[6]
• Christian theologian R. C. Sproul was aboard the Sunset Limited at the time of the crash, and afterwards occasionally spoke or wrote about his experience.

• List of bridge failures

• Holloway, David 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. Train Wreck Eyewitness account of aftermath, at Ligonier Ministries blog. Retrieved 3 June 2014
• Summary and photos at Trainweb.org. Retrieved 3 June 2014
• Graphical re-enactment of accident cause at TMBA Inc Animation Studio, New York. Retrieved 3 June 2014
• U.S. Coast Guard: The short film Aerial and Boat Views of Amtrak Train Derailment, Mobile, Alabama (1993) is available for free download at the Internet Archive