The investigation into this week’s deadly passenger train-truck accident near Bourbonnais is being hampered by Amtrak’s failure to provide an accurate list of people who were aboard the City of New Orleans train, a federal safety official leading the probe charged Wednesday.
The death toll was tentatively lowered to 11 from 13 by the Kankakee County medical examiner’s office. But authorities said that because of the “unreliable passenger manifest provided by Amtrak,” it was unclear how many people were still missing. A total of 216 people, including 20 Amtrak employees, were on the train, according to Amtrak. About 120 people have been treated for injuries at area hospitals.
The Illinois State Police, meanwhile, were called in to assist with the analysis of tire tracks left in mud near the railroad crossing. If the marks match up with the tires on the steel-hauling truck involved in the accident, it would indicate that the truck driver had tried to go around lowered warning gates.
Officials said they planned to conduct follow-up interviews later Wednesday with the truck driver, John R. Stokes of Manteno. Stokes, 58, had been driving on a probationary license.
Investigators were also expected to talk with the train’s engineer, who was not able to be interviewed Tuesday because of his injuries, and with the conductor and assistant conductor to swiftly determine the cause of the crash. But the problems with the passenger count clearly were complicating the situation.
“There is a wide gulf between many of the documents provided us by Amtrak with how many passengers were on the train and how many are still missing today,” said John Goglia, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board who is heading the crash investigation.
NTSB officials said they are focusing on whether Stokes maneuvered around a warning gate in an attempt to beat the train, which was traveling at the 79 m.p.h. speed limit.
A Breathalyzer test performed after the accident showed that Stokes “was not over the (legal) limit,” Goglia said.
The NTSB planned to conduct a test at the accident scene Wednesday night using a truck cab and a train engine similar to the Amtrak locomotive. The test will help investigators determine what Stokes and the train’s engineer saw–or didn’t see–and the amount of time each would have had to react.
