Investigative Reporter Darrel Richter has uncovered what happened when a freight train in Walbridge took off on its own last spring. You probably remember how Chopper 11 captured the runaway train traveling 66 miles and the heroic moment when one man jumped aboard and stopped it in its tracks.
11 Investigates obtained an internal memo from the Federal Railroad Administration. We've confirmed its contents. It outlines detail by detail what happened on May 15, and what went terribly wrong. At 12:35 p.m. on Tuesday, May 15, 2001, what specifically caused a train to run away was a public mystery until now. A memo dated June 21 outlines in detail how the train got away from the Stanley Yard in Walbridge.
The FRA reports that at 6:30 a.m. that morning an engineer, conductor and brakeman reported for duty at the Stanley Yard. A little after 12:00 noon that day the crew was instructed to pull 47 freight cars off one set of tracks and onto another. So a 35-year veteran train engineer took over the controls of the train.
Toledo 11 News showed the FRA internal memo to veteran mechanical engineer and University of Toledo Professor Walter Olson. Richter asked Olson what that CSX train engineer was thinking that day in May. Olson replied, "It's impossible to tell. Totally impossible to tell." Olson said the engineer made at least six consecutive errors.
The memo said when the engineer realized he didn't run through the train switcher like he should have, he tried to apply the brake. But he didn't pull the brake lever. He pulled the throttle instead and throttled up on the train. "By looking at what he did with the dynamic brake, my thinking is
that at that time he was probably close to a panic situation," Olson said. "He was realizing that he wasn't stopping and he needed to get the train stopped, and I think he probably was flustered."
The train was about to be at full power, but the engineer didn't know it. Olson said he made the next big error: he got off the train to manually switch the tracks. "If even at the last moment he had decided not to jump off the train, the accident probably would not have occurred," Olson said.
The train engineer then tried to hop back on board the train, but it was already moving 11 miles an hour, according to the memo. He grabbed ahold of the wet, rain soaked train. It dragged him some 80 feet, until his grip gave way and he fell to the ground. The train took off.
