It’s 2:33 A.M on September 22, 1993.
Amtrak’s Sunset Limited train Number 2, with 215 passengers on board, leaves the railway
station in Mobile, Alabama.
Due to an unexpected delay, the train is already half an hour late, and there is no time to
waste.
The journey is more than 700 miles long and takes more than twenty hours to reach the
last station, the city of Miami in Florida.
On the train, almost all of the passengers are asleep.
Once it leaves the city area, the engineer rushes the train down the track.
Twenty minutes later, Sunset Limited speeds through the night at 72 miles per hour.
Railway signal lights are green, indicating the track is clear as the train approaches
the Big Bayou Canot Bridge - an old but sturdy bridge crossed by dozens of trains and tons
of cargo each day.
After passing the first section of the bridge, the locomotive suddenly flies into the air
and smashes into the mud on the other side.
The train drags two more locomotives and four cars with dozens of people inside toward the
water.
This is a full-scale tragedy caused by a collapsed bridge.
The question is, who or what caused a bridge to collapse, and why didn't the railway signal
system warn the engineer?
It’s a mystery that puzzled the investigators of the Big Bayou Canot Train Disaster.
Some 600 yards away from the bridge and down the stream, a pilot at the helm of the “Mauvilla”
towboat witnessed the whole scene and could be the key to solving the mystery of a destroyed
bridge.
However, the only thing he knows for sure is that he is not supposed to be there in
the first place.
His boat should have been sailing up the Mobile River, but somehow he wound up in the Big
Bayou Canot stream.
Ironically, this awkward situation was the first lead to solve the mystery.
Earlier that morning, at 0:55 am, the Mauvilla towboat departed the Port of Mobile and headed
up the Mobile River.
There was little visibility due to the dense fog that settled in, a frequent occurrence
at this part of the river.
As claimed by the pilot, “he could barely see the fore end of the load he was pushing.”
What Mauvilla was pushing was a 490 feet long and 100 feet wide formation of six barges
loaded with 1,400 tons of steel slabs, coal, and heavy iron compounds.
Piloting the towboat was First Officer Willie Odom.
Even though equipped with a radar, Odom found it difficult to operate the boat in the conditions.
Therefore, he decided to park the barges along the bank and wait for the fog to lift.
To park, Odom needed a large tree to anchor, so he reduced the boat's speed to less than
two knots and ran it along the bank, looking for the right tree.
Concentrated on towing his heavy load through a dense fog, as he was passing by the Twelvemile
Island, the mariner mistakenly turned from the Mobile River mainstream into one of its
backwaters - a Big Bayou Canot.
Unaware that he turned from his course, Odom suddenly notices something on his radar.
Unfortunately, he finds the image too unclear to determine whether it’s another vessel
or something else.
Not wanting to take any chances, he put the engine into reverse in an attempt to stop
the towboat, but it was too late.
At 2:45 am, the dull sound of the front barges hitting a solid object filled the quiet morning
air.
Mauvilla smashed into the Big Bayou Canot Bridge.
Besides the sounds of barges hitting the bridge, there was no other noise or indication it
was collapsing.
Odom couldn't even see if something was happening to the object he collided with because of
the dense fog.
Awakened by the sound of the hit, Mauvilla Captain Andrew Stabler got out of his cabin
and took control of the boat from his first officer.
Unaware of what they ran into, they slowly moved the towboat and barges away from the
spot and parked them along the bank.
They planned to wait for the fog to lift to establish the damage.
Neither of them expected the quiet night to turn into a terrible disaster.
The accident involved one of the most iconic trains in America - the Sunset Limited.
Having been introduced by Southern Pacific Railroad in 1894, it is the oldest continuously
operating train in the United States.
The train in question, Sunset Limited Number Two traveled from Los Angeles, California,
to Miami, Florida, connecting America’s two coasts.
Three locomotives powered it: a brand new GE Genesis P40DC, number 819, leading the
way, and two EMD F40PHs, numbers 262 and 312, each capable of developing a speed of 103
miles per hour (166km/h).
The train also comprised a baggage car, a sleeping car, and six passenger cars.
On board of the train were 215 passengers, two conductors, and three engineers.
At the moment when Mauvilla hit the bridge, Sunset Limited train Number Two was more than
halfway between the Mobile railway station and the bridge.
The train was rushing 72 miles per hour (116 km/h) through the marshlands of south Alabama,
with nothing indicating a danger up front.
All along the train’s path, railway signal lights are turned green.
A broken rail along the track would interrupt the circuit and turn the signal lights to
red, so the engineer would know to stop the train.
Since the lights were green, it seemed as if the rails were not broken, meaning the
bridge remained intact upon the impact.
So, Sunset Limited was rushing into a disaster.
Eight minutes after Mauvilla’s collision with the bridge, at 2:53 am, Sunset Limited
reached the Big Bayou Canot Bridge.
After crossing the first section, the leading locomotive suddenly flew into the air.
As witnessed by one of the passengers, it tilted high into the air and flipped 360 degrees
before it plunged into the water.
With a deafening crash, two other locomotives, the luggage car, the sleeping car, and two
passenger cars fell into the water, sending passengers soaring through the air in the
darkness of their cabins.
Once the dust settled, there were locomotives and cars scattered across the entire stream.
The leading locomotive, the baggage car, and the sleeping car flew all the way to the opposite
side of the stream.
The second and third locomotives slammed into the first, sinking it entirely into the mud.
In the middle of the stream, half of the first passenger car and the entire second passenger
car were submerged.
The remaining four cars stopped at the bridge, with the foremost dangling precariously from
the edge of the undamaged section.
Luckily, the first passenger car did not submerge, lying on top of the bridge debris, allowing
the still conscious passengers to reach the safety exit above the water level and get
out of the train.
Through the ensuing chaos, the passengers who fought their way out of the cars jumped
into the water, trying to reach the safety of the banks…
a challenging task as most of the survivors were pretty disoriented and unaware of where
the bank was.
And the fact that the waters were swarming with snakes and crocodiles made it a highly
dangerous venture.
To make things even worse, the fuel from all three locomotives spilled out and set the
water on fire.
The situation was a complete mess; the screams of the injured echoed through the air, and
the terrible scenes of people fighting for their lives in the flaming river.
Back in the dining car, the assistant conductor, completely unaware of the tragedy, tried to
contact one of the engineers to check why the train stopped.
After he received no answer, he rushed to the front part of the train and realized that
the bridge had collapsed and the front of the train had fallen into the water.
He immediately made a “Mayday” transmission over the railroad-designated radio of the
accident and the location.
He then gathered a group of passengers - skillful swimmers - and rushed to help rescue the survivors.
His mayday message was transferred via another train and the yardmaster at the Sibert Yard
to Mobile Police Department, where the 911 operator informed the Mobile Fire Department
and Coast Guard.
After having difficulties establishing the exact location of the crash, at 3:20 am, the
Mobile Fire Department sent a fireboat, with a rescue team and medical shift commander,
to the site.
Waterway and railway were the only ways to reach the train tracks since they passed through
a marshland.
As a result, the rescue team needed more than half an hour to reach the location, leaving
the passengers to rely on themselves.
The first to come to the rescue was Mauvilla’s captain Andrew Stabler.
He left the barges at the river bank and directed his boat toward the wreckage in flame, but
he couldn't get it close due to fire and high temperature.
Instead, Captain Stabler ordered one of his deckhands to use the aluminum skiff to reach
the survivors in the water.
Since the skiff could only take four or five passengers, the deckhand had to take multiple
trips through the flaming river to reach all the survivors.
Ultimately, Mauvilla's crew rescued 17 passengers.
Another towboat that came to the site managed to save 20 more.
The firefighters' rescue team finally arrived at the scene at 4:00 am and immediately threw
themselves into action.
Soon, the fog lifted, and the sunlight emerged on the horizon.
Rescue helicopters also arrived, and the relief train took the survivors back to Mobile for
hospital treatment.
Once the rescue and recovery operation ended, the final casualty toll counted 47 people
dead and 103 injured.
Besides the engineers, who died on the spot, most deaths were not caused by the impact.
The majority of passengers died from either burning and smoke inhalation or drowning.
The rescue teams needed days to recover all the bodies from the wreckage.
The identification of the victims was aggravated by the fact that Amtrak didn’t record the
passenger lists electronically.
As soon as the rescue and recovery operation was finished, investigators from the National
Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) arrived to determine the causes of the crash.
The initial investigation quickly established that the Mauvilla’s front left barge had
hit the bridge pylons between the first and the bridge’s central section.
However, despite the heaviness of the load, it was deemed implausible that the barges
caused the central steel girder bridge to collapse.
Furthermore, the concrete peer that suffered a hit was still in place.
Yet, something else did destroy the girder bridge.
The investigators were puzzled until a relatively small discovery revealed the bigger picture.
When the remains of the central girder bridge were taken out of the water five days after
the disaster, the investigators took a detailed inspection of it.
At the bottom flange of the girder, they found two spots where the steel was indented as
if something strong had hit it.
Upon additional inspection of the vessels, they found scrape marks on the central barge
that matched the dents on the girder.
Following the impact of the front left barge with the concrete peer, the central barge
struck the steel girder bridge.
Once the investigators were familiar with the bridge construction, everything became
crystal clear.
The Big Bayou Canot Bridge consisted of three parts.
On the southwest bank, from which the train arrived, was a 180.5 feet (55m) long steel
truss bridge.
On the opposite bank was a 210 feet (64m) long wooden bridge.
Each of these sections was resting on a concrete peer.
Between them was a 151feet (46m) long steel girder bridge sitting on a sole central support
column.
The section was originally designed to swing open for boats to pass through.
However, the necessary equipment was never installed, and the section remained static.
The problem was that the central girder bridge was not connected to the other two sections.
Instead, a continuous welded rail was laid across all three sections.
Once the barge hit the central girder bridge near the section where it met the truss bridge,
it swung 38 inches (one meter), causing the rail to bend.
Since the rail was bent but not broken, the track circuit remained intact, and the signal
light displayed green.
When the leading locomotive, traveling at 72 miles per hour (116 km/h), ran into bent
tracks, it derailed and went high into the air, followed by other locomotives and cars.
The barge did cause the tragedy, but the impact of three locomotives and four other cars caused
the destruction of the girder bridge.
The mystery was solved.
Unexpectedly, Mauvilla’s pilot was not found criminally liable for the accident.
Instead, the harsh weather conditions that led Odom to make a wrong turn were determined
as the cause.
On top of everything, the pilot was never trained in using the radar and could not be
held responsible for confusing the bridge’s radar signature for another boat.
Therefore, no state law was violated in the collision.
Nevertheless, Willie Odom surrendered his license and has never operated a boat since.
Meanwhile, his company, Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co, has paid $1.4 million to settle its portion
of the claim by the victim’s families.
However, CSX Transportation, which maintains the Big Bayou Canot Bridge, was not held responsible
for the disaster, despite the NTSB's criticism of the bridge's poor state.
The investigators noted that the tragedy could have been avoided if CSX Transportation converted
the girder bridge into a fixed bridge by simply installing a couple of sheer blocks.
These minimal cost modifications would prevent the girder bridge from rotating and allow
it to take the impact by the barge without bending the rails.
Finally, the Federal Government wasn’t held responsible for the poor state of the tracks
and the lack of a warning system in case of bent tracks either.
After a derailment accident in Utah in 1979, the Federal Railroad Administration did a
feasibility study on installing a mechanism that would trigger the warning signal even
if the tracks were bent.
The conclusion was that the overall cost of such a system would outweigh the benefit.
The derailments continued to happen in the years to come, but the system was never installed.
Following the tragedy, radar, maps, and a compass became mandatory for all boats using
the Mobile River.
Moreover, anyone not sufficiently trained in radar usage cannot control a vessel in
the area.
In the end, no legal consequences were imposed on anyone involved in the Big Bayou Canot
Train Disaster.
No one was to be blamed for the death of 47 people in one of the worst railway disasters
in the history of the United States.