Float crossed track despite warnings

MIDLAND, Texas — A parade float that collided with a freight train, killing four military veterans, had crossed onto railroad tracks even though warning signals were going off, investigators said Saturday.

The U. S. National Transportation Safety Board said the warning bells and signals at the West Texas track were activated 20 seconds before the accident. The second float didn’t go onto the track until several seconds later, just after the guardrail began lowering.

Four veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan were killed Thursday when the train slammed into the parade float in Midland. Sixteen people were injured.

Nine seconds before the crash, the train sounded its horn, a blaring that lasted four seconds, according to NTSB member Mark Rosekind. The guardrail hit the truck, and then the engineer pulled the emergency brake, trying to stop the train.

“Once the crossing becomes active, people should stop,” lead investigator Robert Accetta with the NTSB said.

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

Residents of a town whose history and even name are linked to the railroads that run through were holding a candlelight vigil Saturday evening.

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

The federal agency also interviewed the engineer and conductor, and established that the train’s air brakes were working, Rosekind said.

Part of the investigation includes whether the parade had the proper permit. The parade has been an annual event in Midland for nine years, but City Manager Courtney Sharp declined to say if the group, Show of Support/Hunt for Heroes, had the necessary paperwork.