NTSB: Truck hit by GOP train was on tracks after warning

CROZET, Va. (AP) — Witnesses told investigators that a garbage truck struck by a train carrying Republican congressmen through rural Virginia entered the railroad crossing after the safety gates had come down, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report released Wednesday.

The report on the Jan. 31 crash said the probable cause of the accident has not yet been determined. But it offered some new details about the crash, which killed a trash collector and injured several other people.

The chartered Amtrak train was carrying dozens of Republican lawmakers to an annual retreat in West Virginia.

The NTSB report said data taken from a track image camera on the train showed that as the highway-railroad grade crossing came into view, the gates were down and the garbage truck was on the crossing.

Preliminary information from the train's onboard recorder indicates that the train was traveling about 61 mph (98 kph) when the engineer applied emergency braking. The train struck the left rear of the truck, causing the truck to rotate counterclockwise and then collide with a railroad signal bungalow next to the tracks.

Source: Yahoo News