NTSB holds meeting on Midland train accident that killed veterans

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NTSB faults parade plans in train collision that killed veterans
By Michael Muskal
Los Angeles Times
Published: November 5, 2013


Officials in Midland, Texas, and organizers of a weekend celebration honoring military veterans bear some responsibility for a deadly crash between a freight train and a float carrying veterans and their loved ones, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which spent almost a year investigating the accident.

In a report released Tuesday, the five-member board criticized the lack of safety planning at the charity event designed to honor veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The veterans were invited to the annual three-day weekend of hunting and shopping in Midland and to a parade.

Two flatbed truck floats carrying veterans and their spouses were crossing railroad tracks headed to a banquet on Nov. 15, 2012, when one was struck by a freight train. One float had cleared the crossing, but the second truck was still on the tracks when it was struck by a Union Pacific freight train traveling 62 miles per hour in the 70 mph zone.

Four veterans were killed, and 11 veterans and their wives were injured, several seriously.
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NTSB to meet on train collision that killed 4 veterans in Midland, TX, last year
Associated Press
By JOAN LOWY
November 05, 2013

WASHINGTON — Cheers of support from a flag-waving crowd watching a parade turned into shouts of horror when a freight train rammed into a float carrying veterans and their wives in Midland, Texas, last year. Four veterans were killed and 16 others were injured in the collision.

On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board will meet to consider the probable cause of the accident and to make safety recommendations.

A local charity had invited veterans who had been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan to Midland for a three-day weekend of hunting and shopping in appreciation of their service, including a parade timed to fall near Veterans Day in November. The parade has been an annual event in Midland, a transportation and commerce hub in the West Texas oilfields, for nine years.
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Wounded veterans killed by train made us pay attention