by Rick Stoff
WASHINGTON—CSC Transportation and the city of Biloxi long ignored railroad grade crossings that presented grounding hazards for long, low commercial vehicles. Failure to address the risks was the probable cause of the fatal collision of a freight train and grounded motorcoach, the National Transportation Safety Board ruled at an Aug. 7 hearing.
A CSX train consisting of three locomotives and 52 cars struck a 2016 Van Hool CX-45 operated by Echo Transportation of Dallas in Biloxi, Miss., on March 7, 2017. The motorcoach carried 49 passengers from Texas, ranging from 50 to 88 years old, on a casino tour along the Gulf Coast.
The accident occurred on Main Street, where one side of the crossings sloped downward 15 times greater than the current recommended federal guidance.
The side impact, at 19 miles per hour, pushed the motorcoach 259 feet and killed four passengers. The driver and 37 passengers were injured. The two train crewmen were not injured.
NTSB found that the operators of the motorcoach and CSX locomotive were not “causal or contributory factors in the crash.” Their actions were considered “reasonable” and “acceptable.”
Two causal factors were the severe slope of the crossing and the lack of adequate signage. Third was confusion regarding responsibilities among government agencies.
As for the motorcoach and locomotive operators, “All of them were doing more or less the right thing. But we still ended up with the wrong result—the collision of a train with a motorcoach full of passengers,” said NTSB Chairman Robert L. Sumwalt. “The answers were far upstream from the moment of the collision, when the responsibility for safety became diffused.”
No motorcoach factors contributed to the collision, injuries or fatalities, the board found, but it did call for changes in pre-trip safety briefing practices and motorcoach emergency exit windows and doors.
Investigators said passengers boarded the coach in two groups and only the first group was given a safety briefing by the driver. This was not considered a factor in the attempted evacuation because the train was only 37 to 42 seconds away when the motorcoach grounded.
The Van Hool was equipped with an optional rear door, which NTSB said should be required on all motorcoaches as it is in Europe.
CSX tracks run parallel to the Gulf of Mexico through Biloxi and are elevated for flood protection. An NTSB investigator said, “All twenty-nine grade crossings in Biloxi have a vertical slope greater than the maximum recommended for new and reconstructed grade crossings.”
Investigators said the Biloxi Fire Department prohibits some of its trucks from traveling over 26 of the crossings. In the five years preceding the accident, there were 26 reported groundings of commercial vehicles at the Main Street crossing.
The Gulfport Sun-Herald reported that the Main Street crossing and another in Biloxi previously were listed as the second- and fourth-most dangerous of nearly 3,000 railroad crossings in Mississippi.
The federal guidance for street/railroad crossings states that the slope of the “vertical profile” should not exceed a grade of 0.9 percent—three inches higher or lower than the rail surface at a distance of 30 feet. The Main Street crossing at Ester Boulevard was last reconstructed in 1977 “before the design guidance was available.”
One of the crossing’s slopes, one not seen by the motorcoach driver until he crested the grade too late to stop, was 45.4 inches at 30 feet with a maximum slope of 24.4 percent.
Esters Boulevard is named for former Biloxi City Councilman Michael Esters, who was killed at the Main Street crossing in 1983 while driving his car.
The sign
The crossing was marked with a sign displaying the symbol for a grounded “low-boy” trailer used to transport heavy equipment. The motorcoach driver noted that sign and stopped to raise the rear height of the motorcoach with the “Rapid Rear Rise System” that is standard equipment on that Van Hool model.
NTSB found “a lack of evidence of the safety benefits” of “low-boy” warning signs, which do not provide sufficient information to drivers of other types of vehicles.
The board recommended better coordination of crossing inspections, signing and regulations by the Federal Railroad Administration, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association, Federal Highway Administration, Mississippi Department of Transportation and City of Biloxi.
Main Street now is posted with a sign prohibiting buses, trucks and recreational vehicles from using the crossing.
