Amtrak train crash: Only one passenger now unaccounted for Written by Martha Bellisle, Reno Gazette-Journal Dec 09

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1 Amtrak train crash: Only one passenger now unaccounted for Written by Martha Bellisle, Reno Gazette-Journal Dec 09 Zoom rgj.com Fran Knox, left and granddaughter Karly Anne Knox from Seward, Neb., were both killed when a tractor-trailer rammed an Amtrak train 65 miles east of Reno, Nev. on Friday June 24, / Courtesy of the Knox family Fran Knox, left and granddaughter Karly Anne Knox from Seward, Neb., were both killed when a tractor-trailer rammed an Amtrak train 65 miles east of Reno, Nev. on Friday June 24, reset the count at 195. Update at 7:50 a.m. Tuesday: Amtrak officials now say that only one passenger who was ticketed on the train that was hit by a semi-tractor trailer last Friday is unaccounted for. Marc Magliari, an Amtrak spokesman, also said they have new figures for the number of passengers on the train at the time of the crash. Originally they said 204 passengers were on the train. They've Magliari said they found one person who had made a reservation but was not ticketed and did not travel. "It is not Amtrak policy to publicly identify any of our passengers," he said in a statement. "Again, the figures we provide are not a proxy for any other processes being carried out by local, state or federal agencies." Update at 7:20 p.m.: While investigators probe the safety records of the trucking company and the driver of the semitrailer that slammed into an Amtrak passenger train, the driver s family defended him Monday, saying he would have done all he could to stop the truck and save lives if he could. I just know he had to have known that the truck wasn t going to stop in a football field and he could have jumped out, said Delone Yu of Chino, Calif., nephew of driver Lawrence Ruben Valli, 43, of Winnemucca. I even asked my mom, well why didn t he just jump out and she told me he s not the type of person to run from a problem. Valli, a driver with John Davis Trucking Company in Battle Mountain, was killed instantly after his 50,000-pound semi skidded for about 320 feet through the safety guard rails and into the train on Friday. Driving records showed that he had at least six moving violations since 2008, including four speeding tickets. Amtrak conductor Laurette Lee, 68, also was killed, and on Monday, the Nevada Highway Patrol identified passengers Francis Knox, 58, and her 18-year-old daughter, Karly, of Seward, Neb. among the five who died on the train. The names of the other victims would be released once they ve been identified and their families notified, Trooper Chuck Allen said. Two passengers remain unaccounted for, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said. It was not clear whether the passengers left the train at an earlier stop and were not counted. Earl Weener, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said investigators found a cell phone near the site of Friday s crash that they believe belonged to Valli, and it has been sent to a lab to be examined. They want to find out whether Valli was talking on the phone or sending a text message as his truck approached the crossing on U.S. 95, about 70 miles east of Reno. Page 1 of 7

2 They also acquired a video from Amtrak that was taken from the front of the train as soon as the emergency brakes were applied, Weener said. The two-minute color video shows that the weather was clear, visibility was good, and there were no obstructions that would have blocked the sight of the train, he said. It also shows that the train crossing gates were down and the horn and bells were working, he said. Investigators met with representatives of the trucking company and will continue interviews this week, he said. The company had another fatal accident in May, Weener said, but he did not have details of what happened in that single-vehicle accident. The trucking company was cited for seven violations since 2010, and one required the company to take the truck out of service until the problems were fixed, according to records from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. An NTSB examination of the truck on Monday found that the tractor weighed about 20,000 pounds, and each of the trailers weighed 17,000 and 12,000 pounds respectively, Weener said. The tractor was embedded into the side of the rail car, he said, and can t be removed. It also showed that the truck had two fuel tanks that could hold a total of 220 gallons, he said. They don t yet know how much fuel was in the tanks at the time of the crash. The NTSB is expected to release a preliminary report in about 30 days, and won t have a probable cause for about a year, he said. Nevada Department of Motor Vehicle records show that Valli secured his commercial driver s license in October 2009, and had multiple traffic violations. He had surrendered his non-commerical driver s license some time between 2002 and 2005, but it was not known why, said Tom Jacobs, DMV spokesman. The California DMV said Valli had five convictions on his record for offenses starting in He was ticketed for speeding in a commercial vehicle in July 2008, cited for not wearing a seat belt in August 2008, stopped for speeding in September 2008 and three days later was ticketed for driving with a cell phone in his hand, according the California DMV. He received a speeding ticket in Fresno County, Calif., on May 12, 2009, when he was traveling 64 mph in a 55 mph zone, according to the ticket. He also was cited for driving between 11 and 20 mph over the posted speed limit in Alabama in September 2009, records show At the time of the last two tickets, Valli was working for Western Express, a Nashville-Tenn., trucking company that hires drivers to carry general commodities across 48 states, a spokeswoman said. Valli started working there Jan. 7, 2009 and left on Feb. 10, 2011, the spokeswoman said. But she declined to say why he left. Valli s nephew, Delone Yu, said Valli has been a truck driver all his life, and had an 11-year-old daugther who was his everything. He was a very hard-working person who was determined to make a great life for his daughter, Yu said. We are all still in shock because none of the details have really been disclosed to the family yet and we don t understand how it could have happened. Valli s sister, Jacquita Yu, and their mother, Betty Valli, went to the crash site Monday and noted how the skid marks kind of went to the left at the end, Delone Yu said. He was a good person and loved his family, Yu said, adding that Valli s daughter took the news of her father s death hard. But my family and I keep all of the people and families involved in prayer and wish for the best in this Page 2 of 7

3 horrible situation! Update at 6:28 p.m. by the Associated Press: RENO (AP) Federal investigators say the cell phone of the truck driver involved in a deadly collision with an Amtrak train has been recovered at the crash site in Nevada. National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener (way-nur) said Monday that Lawrence Valli s cell phone is being sent to the agency s laboratory in Washington, D.C. to determine if it was a distraction. He says investigators want to know whether Valli was preparing to send a text message or talking to anyone before his semitrailer slammed into an Amtrak passenger car on Friday at a highway crossing about 70 miles east of Reno, killing the driver and at least five people on the train. An Amtrak spokesman says only two passengers remain unaccounted for, though investigators aren t sure they were on the train. Update at 5:19 p.m. The cell phone of truck driver Lawrence Ruben Valli was found in a field near the crash site where his vehicle slammed into an Amtrak train, according to a press conference just held by the National Transportation Safety Board. More details to come. Update at 4:19 p.m.: The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles said that Lawrence Ruben Valli, the driver of the truck that slammed into the Amtrak train, said that Valli first acquired his Nevada commercial driver s license in October 2009, but changed his address in 2011, making it appear on their records as new. California officials said Valli has five violations on his record, including three speeding tickets, one ticket for failing to wear a seatbelt, and one in 2008 for talking on a cell phone. At the time of his last California ticket, Valli, 43, was working for Western Express, a commercial trucking company based in Nashville, Tenn. Valli worked for the company, which had lines running in 48 states, from Jan. 7, 2009 to Feb. 10, 2011, according to a company spokeswoman. She could not say why he left. Update at 4:15 p.m.: Some of the family of truck driver Lawrence Larry Valli arrived in Reno from Southern California and are trying to learn more about how Valli s truck slammed into an Amtrak passenger train last Friday. Delone Yu, Valli s nephew, said Valli has an 11-year-old daughter who was his everything. He s been a truck driver his whole life and was a very hard-working person who was determined to make a great life for his daughter, Yu said. We are all still in shock because none of the details have really been disclosed to the family yet and we don t understand how it could have happened. Update at 1:05 p.m.: Three of the speeding tickets Lawrence Ruben Valli, the driver of the truck that slammed into the Amtrak train on Friday, was issued in California were for driving a school bus over the speed limit. Valli, who would have had a commercial license to drive a school bus, was cited in July 2008, September 2008 and May 2009 in California for speeding in a school bus, according to Tom Jacobs, spokesman for the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles. He also was cited in August 2008 for driving without a seatbelt in a commercial vehicle, Jacobs said. Valli, 43, of Winnemucca, also was cited for driving between 11 and 20 mph over the posted speed limit in Alabama in September 2009, records show. Page 3 of 7

4 Update at 12:00 p.m.: The driver of the truck that slammed into an Amtrak passenger train, killing the driver and five people on the train, had a list of out-of-state speeding violations on his driving record and only obtained his Nevada commercial driver s license in May, according to Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles records. Lawrence Ruben Valli acquired a commercial driver s license on May 6, 2011, and it was to expire on Oct. 11, 2013, records show. Valli surrendered his non-commercial Nevada driver s license some time between 2002 and 2005, and got four speeding tickets in California and Alabama between 2008 and 2010, records show. -- Martha Bellisle, RGJ Update at 11:05 a.m.: 43-year-old Lawrence R. Valli of Winnemucca, Nevada, was killed when the front of his 2008 Peterbilt tractor, that was towing two 2007 SmithCo side dump trailers, collided with the left side of a westbound Amtrak train at a controlled railroad crossing or intersection. Valli had been traveling northbound on the two-lane highway where the posted speed limit is 70 miles per hour. Although evidence at the crash scene indicates the vehicle s brakes were applied, Mr. Valli was unable to stop his vehicle safely in time for the passing train, Nevada Highway Patrol spokesman Chuck Allen said. The collision resulted in two of the occupied rail cars to catch fire resulting in 6 confirmed deaths to date. There are still 5 passengers unaccounted for this morning. Two of the fatality victims riding on the train have been positively identified by the Washoe County Medical Examiner-Coroner s Office as 58-year-old Francis Knox and her 18-year-old daughter, Karly Knox, of Seward, Nebraska. As soon as the other victims are identified, the NHP will be releasing their names. Update at 10:05 a.m.: Investigators struggled Monday to piece together how a truck driver who plowed into an Amtrak train in the Nevada desert failed to notice the crossing gates and blinking lights that should have been visible a half-mile away. At least six people were killed and five people are unaccounted for after the fiery crash that gutted two rail cars and left the semi-truck buried inside one. Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Chuck Allen said authorities would consider all factors, including fatigue, driver inattention, and drugs or alcohol, with toxicology and autopsy results due within days. Was he talking to his buddies behind him? If so, was he looking in the side-view mirror and not looking at the road ahead? Allen said. I don t think we ll ever know for sure. The fire burned so intensely that investigators were delayed in searching the wreckage and hampered in their ability to locate victims in the burned out rubble. Autopsies are expected on all victims. National transportation officials have sent the same forensics team that helped recover victims of a deadly plane crash near Buffalo, N.Y., two years ago. It could take up to a year to pinpoint the cause of the crash that killed the truck driver, a conductor and four others on the train. The semi-trailer truck hit the California Zephyr at a highway crossing about 70 miles east of Reno. Forensic anthropologists Dennis Dirkmaat and Steven Symes were to lead a team from Mercyhurst College in Page 4 of 7

5 Pennsylvania to the scene, and be there until at least Thursday. The same team helped authorities after a plane plunged into a home in suburban Clarence, N.Y., in 2009, killing the home s owner and all 49 people aboard the plane. Earl Weener, a National Transportation Safety Board member, said flashing lights at the crossing were set to blink 25 seconds before a train approaches. Investigators planned to meet with the company Tuesday and review the driver s medical history, training and experience, Weener said. He also has said the driver s professional commercial driving record is an area we will be taking a very close look at. More than two days after the accident, a variety of factors remained unknown, including how fast the driver was going, Weener said. Two other truck drivers in the convoy and the train s engineer watched the semitrailer skid the length of a football field before crashing into the train. The other drivers stopped when they saw the gates come down and the warning lights go off as the California Zephyr approached, Weener said. The driver of the big rig in the lead did not. The train s 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, Weener said. The man watched the collision in a rearview mirror. He was hoping the train was not going to derail. The driver was working for John Davis Trucking Co. in Battle Mountain, Nev. Its website said it was family owned and specialized in hauling ore from local mines, as well as moving gravel and sand. The company did not immediately return a call or Sunday. Federal records reviewed by The Associated Press showed the Nevada Department of Public Safety has cited the company for crashes, unsafe driving, and most seriously, operating a truck with tire treads so exposed that it had to be taken off the road. In that January inspection, authorities deemed the rig an imminent hazard to public safety. The company was also cited for two crashes in the last two years, including one in February 2010 that injured a person in Washoe County. Federal records do not detail who was at fault. Weener said the company had received seven violations since 2010 and that one of them forced a truck to be taken out of service, but he provided no other details. It was difficult to say whether the company s record was significant or atypical in the industry, he added. The federal records showed the other citations were for issues such as oil leaks and inoperative lamps, a company driver who didn t use a seat belt, and lane restriction and cargo violations. They were not deemed sufficiently serious to order the vehicle off the road. Allen said it was not unusual for state public safety officials conducting spot roadside inspections to take trucks out of service for unsafe driving practices or discrepancies in travel logs. -- By SCOTT SONNER and GARANCE BURKE, Associated Press Updated at 9:30 a.m.: One of the Amtrak passengers who had been in critical condition at Renown Regional Medical Center following Friday s deadly crash has been upgraded to serious condition, the hospital said today. Of the nine passengers sent to the hospital, six have been discharged, the hospital said. Besides the patient in serious condition, one other is in fair condition, and a third is in good condition. Page 5 of 7

6 The names of those injured were not released. -- Martha Bellisle, RGJ Update at 9:05 a.m.: Officials said this morning they will release the name of the truck driver who slammed into an Amtrak passenger train later today. Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Chuck Allen said he also will be releasing the names of some of the others killed in Friday s fiery crash on U.S. 95, about 70 miles east of Reno. Six people, including the driver, an Amtrak conductor and four passengers, were killed in the crash. Four of the dead have been identified, Allen said. The Washoe County Medical Examiner s office conducted autopsies on those four on Sunday, he said. The examiner s office plans to do the last two autopsies today, he said. -- BY Martha Bellisle, Reno Gazette-Journal Updated at 8:50 p.m. Sunday: The National Transportation Safety Board said Sunday that the trucking company whose vehicle hit an Amtrak train Friday had been involved in 19 random roadside inspections since 2010, leading to seven violations and one vehicle being taken out of service. A 43-year-old man from Winnemucca was driving the semitrailer for John Davies Trucking of Battle Mountain that smashed into the Amtrak train killing him and at least five others, an official said after a press conference Sunday. Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Chuck Allen said Sunday that the driver s name still was being withheld, pending notification of family. Amtrak conductor Laurette Lee, 68, also was killed in the Friday crash about 70 miles east of Reno, according to Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari, who said four passengers were killed. Five passengers remain unaccounted for, Magliari said. The National Transportation and Safety Board said its investigation was hampered because of the inability to gather information over the weekend. The NTSB plans to visit the company this week, said NTSB member Earl Weener, who said the board hoped to visit the company by Tuesday. At that time, we will be reviewing not only company records but the driver s records. Meanwhile, The Associated Press reported that federal records showed that the Nevada trucking company that has been cited by the Department of Public Safety for two crashes in the last two years, including one in February 2010 that injured a person in Washoe County. In a January inspection of John Davis Trucking Co. of Battle Mountain, the AP said authorities found tires on one company tractor-trailer so bald they deemed the rig an imminent hazard to public safety. Because there were no obstructions and excellent visibility on U.S. 95 from the south, Weener said the train, which was going 78-miles-per hour, should have been visible for well over a mile. The signals are set by the railroad to activate at about 25 seconds prior to train crossing, he said. The signals would have been visible about a half a mile back for a truck travelling the speed limit of 70 miles an hour. Page 6 of 7

7 Although the railroad crossing was skewed at a 45-degree angle and general grade crossings are 90 degrees, he said the crossing angle was within the guidelines. Of the nine injured Amtrak passengers treated at Renown Regional Medical Center, three remain in the hospital, one in critical condition, one in serious condition and one in good condition, the hospital said. At the site of the wreckage, Weener said the track is open, although operations are at reduced speed. There s further maintenance to be done, he said. Crossing signal lights and gates are not functioning yet. As a consequence, the operation requires signalmen to help with traffic. The train has been disassembled. The two damaged cars have been set on the north side of the tracks near the grade crossing and will remain there until the investigation is completed. One partially damaged car will remain in the area and Amtak took the other cars back to its yard for refurbishing before returning them to its fleet. The Associated Press assisted with this report. Page 7 of 7