SEPTA says human error likely caused train crash

Human error is likely the cause of a SEPTA train accident today that sent nine people to the hospital and delayed commuters for much of the morning, SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney said.

A southbound work train struck the rear of a stopped southbound R1-Airport train about 4:40 a.m. just southwest of 10th and Wagner Streets, near the Fern Rock station. Five crew members were on the work train, and 16 passengers and two crew members were on the commuter train.

All the injured - four on the work train and five on the commuter train - were treated at Albert Einstein Medical Center and released.

Richard Dixon, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Division 71, was on the R1 train when it was hit. He said he was at the front of the train, with the engineer, when the accident occurred.

"We had been stopped about a minute or two, and then, boom. I was knocked backwards into the wall," Dixon said. "The engineer hit his head. We both ricocheted around. It was a good jolt."

Dixon was among those who went to the hospital, to be examined for back pains, and he said one of the passengers in the same ambulance received stitches for a cut on his chin.

Initial inspections of the signal, communications and mechanical systems showed all were working properly, Maloney said.

"We're leaning toward human error" as the probable cause, he said. Although light snow was in the area at the time, he said weather was not considered a significant factor in the accident.

"Human error" could involve mistakes by a train crew or a dispatcher.

The diesel work train, Track Car 3161, was moving slowly around a curve when it hit Train 0199, which was stopped at a signal.

Work trains are treated differently under railroad operating rules than regular trains and must have specific authority from a dispatcher to proceed on a main line.

Typically, a track car is not operated by a locomotive engineer, but by a maintenance-of-way or electric traction foreman. And track cars do not have signals in the cab to indicate if the track is occupied.

Federal Railroad Administration investigators were on the scene to begin their investigation of the accident.

Damage to the trains was relatively minor; couplers on both trains were crushed, and the work train was dented, Maloney said.

The accident caused delays of about half an hour on R1-Airport, R2-Warminster, R3-West Trenton, and R5-Lansdale/Doylestown trains throughout the morning.