Fatigue questioned; Dead UTU crewman unidentified
United Transportation Union - UTU: July 12, 2005
BENTONIA, Miss. -- Crew fatigue is one of many possible causes of the deadly head-on collision of two Illinois Central freight trains near here early July 10 that claimed four lives.
Three bodies have been recovered. The search continued Monday for a fourth body in the wreckage.
The name of one of the victims has been released, but the names of the other three crew members are still being withheld.
The dead crew member was identified by his mother as is 21-year-old Conductor Shannon R. Purvis of Puckett, Miss., a member of UTU Local 1334 in Hattiesburg, Miss., who has been in train and engine service since August 2002.
Purvis' mother, Sarah McDaniel, who had been keeping a vigil at the crash site, said her son had been working for the IC since age 18. "He loved the railroad," she said. "He loved the work. He was a good child."
Purvis, said his mother, was aboard the 107-car southbound IC train with two locomotives enroute from Champaign, Ill., to Ferguson, Miss. The 137-car northbound train, with four locomotives, was enroute from New Orleans to Iowa.
The issue of crew fatigue was raised by National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman, who has spoken at length of this problem in the past with UTU officials.
Hersman made her comment to news reporters at the scene, according to WBLT television in Jackson, Miss. She was quick to make clear that investigators do not know the cause of the accident and only a thorough investigation will answer that question. The UTU's Transportation Safety Team has been on site since Sunday assisting NTSB investigators.
Hersman said Monday afternoon that investigators have yet to locate the "black boxes" located on the locomotives in Sunday's wreck. The boxes contain vital computerized information that includes the speed of the trains and if they attempted to brake, she said.
IC is part of CN North America.
On June 28, five Kansas City Southern Railway crew members were injured -- two critically -- in another fiery head-on collision involving two KCS trains near Jackson, Miss. The cause of that accident remains under investigation by the NTSB.
(The preceding story is based on news reports from the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, WBLT-TV in Jackson, and other sources.)