On Feb. 4, Orange Park Amtrak conductor Michael Cella was killed on the job.
Since then, Action News Jax has been investigating whether Cella’s death could have been prevented.
The Amtrak train he was on crashed head-on into a parked CSX train in Cayce, S.C. Two people were killed and more than 100 were injured.
An Action News Jax Investigation has now uncovered a message from CSX dispatchers in Jacksonville could have saved lives.
“The Amtrak had no idea what was fixing to happen. No idea," said former CSX conductor Louis Billingsley.
The Amtrak train was supposed to travel on the main track, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Instead, it unexpectedly diverted onto a side track, going 56 miles an hour.
Amtrak had no idea that a CSX crew had manually flipped a track switch, diverting the Amtrak train onto a side track.
By policy, NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt said the CSX crew should have manually flipped the switch back to re-line it with the main track.
“Key to this investigation is learning why that switch was lined that way because the expectation, of course, was that the Amtrak would be cleared and would be operating straight down like this," said Sumwalt.
The day of the crash, the signals in that area weren't working.
That means Amtrak needed to get the go-ahead from Jacksonville dispatch.
“They trusted the dispatcher that that track was clear for their movement," said Billingsley.
Billingsley worked for CSX as a conductor for nine years and as an engineer for nearly three years.
Billingsley was fired a few months after a July interview with Action News Jax blowing the whistle on CSX, saying it cuts corners when it comes to safety.
Billingsley said it's possible the Jacksonville CSX dispatchers didn't know the track was aligned improperly if the CSX conductor did not fill out what's called a Switch Position Awareness Form.
Since the signals in the crash area were down for maintenance, Billingsley and other sources within the railroad industry tell Action News Jax a “slow order” limiting the Amtrak train's speed should have been issued.
It’s an order Billingsley said Jacksonville CSX dispatchers would have had to communicate to Amtrak.
CSX spokesperson Laura Phelps refused to answer Action News Jax’s questions about whether a slow order had been issued.
The NTSB chairman said the Amtrak train traveled on the side track for 659 feet -- about the length of two football fields -- before hitting the parked CSX train at 50 miles an hour.
“If it had been a slow order issued at 40 miles an hour, there's no doubt in my mind that Amtrak would have been able to stop within a football field's length, before hitting that train," said Billingsley.
Eleven days after the crash, the NTSB issued an urgent recommendation that emergency orders be given restricting speeds when trains pass through areas where signals aren’t working.
A recommendation that could indicate there was no such order in effect before the crash.
The maintenance being done on the signal system was part of a technology upgrade that could have stopped the train in time.
It’s technology designed to keep train crews, passengers, local drivers and their families safe.
But year after year, rail companies have missed deadlines to get it installed.
The lawsuit filed by Cella’s widow says if technology called Positive Train Control had been installed, it could have prevented the crash that killed her husband.
It’s technology designed to automatically stop a train to avoid certain crashes.
Billingsley acknowledges Positive Train Control, or PTC, is an expensive upgrade.
“You can’t just snap your fingers and get it done. It costs a lot of money,” said Billingsley.
When the Amtrak train crashed into the parked CSX train in Cayce, the signal system wasn’t working because PTC upgrades were happening in the area – the very technology that Sumwalt said may have prevented the crash.
“An operational PTC system is designed to prevent this type of accident,” said Sumwalt.
Ten years ago, Congress required all American railroads to adopt PTC, but the deadlines came and went.
The latest deadline is the end of this year, but the Associated Press reports that the Association of American Railroads’ general counsel said 2020 is a more realistic time frame.
Action News Jax compared CSX to the two companies most similar in size: BNSF and Norfolk Southern.
We found CSX is right in the middle.
According to Federal Railroad Administration statistics, CSX has 45 percent of its tracks upgraded with PTC.
Compare that to BNSF, which is a little larger than CSX: It has 89 percent of its tracks done. Norfolk Southern is a little smaller than CSX and has PTC on 25 percent of its tracks.
With thousands of jobs slashed, safety practices in question and PTC upgrades incomplete, Billingsley believes the next CSX crash is only a matter of time.
“If they don't turn this thing back around, there's going to be more accidents. It's going to backfire on them,” said Billingsley.
Despite only having 45 percent of its tracks upgraded with PTC, a CSX spokesperson said the company is on track to meet Congress’s deadline at the end of the year.
Cox Media Group
