Former Railroad Official Says Human Error Likely Cause of Collision

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – A former official of the Federal Railroad

Administration says human error is likely the cause of a head-on

train collision in the Oklahoma Panhandle that killed two engineers

and a conductor.

The state medical examiner said Tuesday it had received the

remains of the three men killed in Sunday’s accident. The National

Transportation Safety Board has said it appears signals were

working properly at the time of the wreck, and that one of two

trains passing through the flat landscape should have pulled onto a

side track.

Gil Carmichael, a former official at the Federal Railroad

Administration, said Tuesday that if the signals were working

properly, crew members were likely at fault. The crash triggered a

diesel-fueled fireball that engulfed the lead locomotives on two

Union Pacific freight trains.