COMMERCE, Calif., June 25 (UPI) -- Investigators say railroad dispatchers thought they had no other option but to send a runaway train to a siding near Los Angeles where it derailed.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday Union Pacific employees determined there were other trains on the tracks ahead of the speeding cars and saw the siding in Commerce as the last and only place to divert them in relative safety.
The derailment last Friday destroyed or damaged four homes and caused a dozen minor injuries. It apparently resulted from a failure to properly set the brakes on the cars at a railyard 20 miles away.
The NTSB's preliminary report noted a lack of a contingency plan for runaway trains, forcing dispatchers to improvise a plan within a matter of minutes as the cars sped toward Los Angeles.
