CHICAGO -- J.A. Watts was at the controls of the four-car modern bi-level commuter train when it apparently overshot the 27th street flag stop on the South Side.
He stopped toe train and began backing up, triggering the railroad's "red" warning light. But it was too late to halt the oncoming old-style, six-car Illinois Central commuter train--causing the nation's worst train accident in 14 years.
At least 44 persons were killed in the wreck Monday and more than 320 others injured, some critically.
"People were flying all over the place," Mrs Laureice Browning, 33, a passenger on one train. "I just screamed and screamed, and somehow I was able to find my way off that thing."
Harold Melcher, 21, who was the first car of the approaching rear train, said he heard the conductor shout: "We're going to crash. Everybody get down." He said he dropped to the floor and escaped without injury.
The impact thrust the older rear train car telescoping into the last double decker car. Most of the dead and seriously Injured were riding far the last double-decker. It took rescue workers six hours to remove bodies and survivors from the wreckage.
President Nixon expressed his deepest sympathy and concern. He cancelled a ticker tape campaign parade scheduled for today in Chicago. Democratic presidential candidate George S. McGovern also cancelled a torchlight parade scheduled here Wednesday.
Mayor Richard J. Daley called the crash "tragic." He ordered flags flown at half staff in the city until Saturday in memory of the dead.
The President dispatched John Volpe, secretary of transportation, to Chicago to inspect the wreckage. Volpe spent 40 minutes at the wreckage site before touring some of the six hospitals that treated the 321 persons.
Volpe and Henry Wakeland, director of the department's Bureau of Transportation Safety, said the accident raised questions about the strength of the new aluminum and steel commuter cars.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman John H. Reed, of Washington, scheduled a news conference today to discuss the crash.
Investigations were begun by a number of agencies including the railroad, the federal and state government transportation departments, the Illinois Commerce Commission and the Cook County coroner's office.
Jack Humbert, the railroad's vice president in charge of operations, said the overshooting of the platform apparently led to the accident.
Humbert said the railroad uses block signals, with a green "go" light permitting speed up to 65 miles per hour, a yellow "caution light" permitting speed up to 30 mph, and a red light which calls for the approaching train to stop.
Humbert said by the time the train backed up, and the signal colors changed, the second train apparently had traveled too far and was traveling too fast to stop in time.
H.G. Mullins, the IC's superintendent of passenger service, said Watts told him he overshot the platform by about 250 feet.
