New Details Make AMTRAK Crash Look More Like an Accident Than an Attack

I had serious questions about this AMTRAK crash from Friday night.  It looked like it could have been an attempted terror attack, but new details make it more likely to be just a terrible accident:

Two truck drivers and a train engineer watched helplessly as a semitrailer skidded the length of a football field before it smashed through crossing gates and into two double-decker cars of an Amtrak train at a highway crossing, killing at least six people.

The drivers were part of a three-truck convoy that saw the gates come down and the warning lights go off as the California Zephyr approached, National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener said Saturday.

They stopped, but the driver of the big rig in the lead did not, he said....

At the time of the collision, Weener said visibility was excellent and the crossing gates and warning lights were working.

The train's engineer saw the truck approaching the crossing about 70 miles east of Reno and realized the collision was inevitable, he said.

The engineer slammed on the emergency brakes, but the train, which was going about 78 mph in an 80-mph zone, traveled a half mile more before it finally stopped, he said. The engineer watched the truck smash into two of the train's 10 cars through the rearview mirror.

"He recalled the event clearly. He saw the truck approaching the train," Weener said. "At some point, he knew the impact was imminent. He, in fact, watched the collision in a rearview mirror. He was hoping the train was not going to derail."

There are still some unanswered questions. None of the accounts I've read have given us the name of the truck driver. All we've been told is he's a Nevada resident in his mid-40's. It might be nice to get some clarity on that.

Chances are it's a case of driver inattention or perhaps a driver who thought at first he could beat the train to the crossing and then realized too late he couldn't. We may never know for sure.