PORTLAND, Ore. -- A union official disputes Burlington Northern Railroad's claim that two crewmen died in a freight train accident Saturday night because they failed to heed a red block light.
'The only thing I can say, being a locomotive engineer, is that with my experience and training, it was impossible for them to go past a red block light,' said W.C. 'Skip' Barnes, chairman of the Vancouver, Wash., local of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. 'One of our prime rules is that you don't go by a red block.'
Barnes said Tuesday he believes engineer Douglas A. Richardson, 36, Portland, and brakeman Terry L. Brothers, 34, Vancouver, were given a green light to proceed, even though the St. Johns Bridge was being opened to allow a tall-masted sailboat through the main channel.
Several railroad employees reported the signal light on the bridge sometimes showed green when it should have showed red.
The bodies of the two men and the 125-ton locomotive were recovered Tuesday. An autopsy determined both men drowned but further tissue tests were ordered on the bodies.
Federal authorities were investigating the accident.
The bridge, which pivots in the middle to make the central span parallel to the river began to swing, but before it could fully open, the bridge operator heard a loud noise, followed by a splash. Only the engine -- which had been traveling 5-10 mph -- fell into the water, with the 27 freight cars it was pulling remaining on the track.
A Burlington Northern spokesman blamed the crew for running a red light which was supposed to warn them part of the bridge had swung open to allow river traffic to pass.
'That's archaic equipment,' said Barnes.
A BN brakeman, who asked that his name not be used for fear he would lose his job, said that heavy fog reported the night of the accident would not have kept the men from seeing the signal light. He said Brothers would have had to get off the train to manually pull three switches that would let th e train switch tracks in order to proceed over the bridge.
'When Terry threw the last switch, he was standing 10 feet away from the block light and would have been facing it,' he said, adding that a block signal is about twice as big as a traffic light.
Barnes and other railroad employees said the warning lights at the bridge had been the subject of numerous complaints over the past two years.
Burlington Northern spokesman Kim Forman said electrical engineers found no malfunction.
'The cause is that the train ran a red block light, which is just like a red traffic light in a street,' Forman said. 'That light is at eye level only a few feet away from the track.'
'There doesn't appear at this point to have been any mechanical failure to account for the accident,' he said. 'It appears to be a human problem. Perhaps the crew was distracted, but the train ran a red light.'
Deputy State Medical Examiner Ronald L. O'Halloran said autopsies showed each man drowned.
Burlington Northern officials said they would salvage the engine, which appeared to have received little damage as it landed on its wheels on the river bottom.
It was the second accident at the bridge in less than a week.
On Dec. 26, an Amtrak passenger train failed to stop and derailed near the bridge, breaking an emergency derailer designed to prevent trains from entering open space.
The emergency derailer could have prevented the Saturday night accident, Forman said, but it was not repaired due to a shortage of parts.
