Vets’ float proceeded after warnings, inquiry finds

MIDLAND, Texas — A parade float filled with wounded veterans that was smashed by a freight train had crossed onto the railroad tracks after warning signals were going off, investigators said Saturday.

Four veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan were killed and 16 more people were injured when the train crashed into the flatbed truck in Midland.

It was the second of two floats carrying veterans in Thursday’s parade. The first was exiting the tracks when the warning bells and signals were activated, 20 seconds before the collision, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The second float didn’t enter the tracks until several seconds after the warning system went off, the board said. By that time, the guardrail was lowering.

“Once the crossing becomes active, people should stop,” Robert Accetta, lead investigator with the board, said at a news conference Saturday.

The timeline was pieced together by combining information from a video camera mounted on the front of the train, another one on a sheriff’s car and a data recorder that acts like an airplane’s black box, activating when the train blared the horn, according to National Transportation Safety Board member Mark Rosekind.

Nine seconds before the crash, the train sounded its horn, a blaring that lasted four seconds, according to Rosekind.

The guardrail hit the truck, then the engineer pulled the emergency brake, trying to bring the train that was traveling at 62 mph to screeching halt.

People on the different float and dozens of others who had come out to greet the veterans shrieked and watched in shock as some aboard the truck tried to jump off, witnesses said.

The National Transportation Safety Board also interviewed the engineer and conductor, and established that the train’s air brakes were working, Rosekind said. No mechanical problems were found with the cars. Areview of the train’s maintenance history found no defects. The tracks also had no problems.

The veterans were on their way to a banquet in their honor and were being cheered by a flag-waving crowd. It was supposed to be the start of a threeday weekend of events in appreciation of the veterans’ sacrifice.

Killed were Marine Chief Warrant Officer 3 Gary Stouffer, 37; Army Sgt. Maj. Lawrence Boivin, 47; Army Sgt. Joshua Michael, 34; and Army Sgt. Maj. William Lubbers, 43.