Rail safety investigators release final report on deadly southern Colorado derailment
The National Transportation Safety Board has released its final report on a 2023 train derailment in southern Colorado that killed a man who was driving a truck under a rail bridge above Interstate 25.
The crash happened on the afternoon of Oct. 15 north of Pueblo. Almost immediately, investigators said the likely cause of the derailment was a broken piece of rail and in its final report the NTSB stands by that finding.
"The probable cause of the derailment," the report concludes, "was the train encountering a rail break that occurred when a mismatched thermite weld failed; the thermite weld cracked near the rail's base because the welder, for unknown reasons, likely did not use a compromise kit during the welding as required by BNSF Railway procedures."
Video taken from the train showed that piece of rail breaking as the train traveled over it, NTSB investigators said in their report.
The NTSB examined records from BNSF Railway, which owned and maintained the train and that stretch of rail, and interviewed the welder who welded the broken piece of rail months earlier. Those records showed that the piece was welded on May 24, 2023.
"BNSF welding procedures allow for the joining of rails with different profiles (that can result from rail wear or a joint between different rail weights), but if the profiles differ by more than 0.125 inches, a welder must use a compromise kit to account for the difference," the report continued. "Typically, the top edges of the rails must be aligned, and the compromise kit includes a mold that is designed to ensure that the difference in rail profiles does not create a gap at the base of the rail that can allow weld flash to pool under the rail."
The welder, who has not been identified, told investigators that he didn't recall performing that weld, but "was properly trained, demonstrated knowledge of when a compromise kit should be used according to BNSF procedures, and reported that he had used them in the past," the NTSB said.
A spokesperson for BNSF said it does "extensive" inspections through its rail network, to include bridges and potential impacts after certain weather events.
"BNSF routinely conducts a number of inspections to the track using a combination of rail detection testing, advanced track infrastructure testing and visual inspections, including the inspection that occurred on Sunday, October 15, 2023, prior to the derailment," the spokesperson said. "All that being said, we are committed to continuous improvement and will carefully consider the NTSB's final report and recommendations to more fully understand what lessons can be learned from this incident."
The NTSB estimated the cost of damages resulting from the crash at $15.6 million and said 31 cars derailed.
Killed in that derailment was Lafollette Henderson, 60, of Compton, California. His daughter Triana James said at the time that driving a semi was a job he loved and he always had a positive outlook.
"This is just such a freak accident, I'm still trying to process what is really going on," James said. "The security, the knowing that you can call him... I'm telling you, if you were having a bad day, and just like 'Dad, I'm going to do something bad'... And he'd be like 'Look, it's going to be OK."
The NTSB said the following lessons were learned and changes made as a result of the derailment:
"In response to this accident, BNSF adopted a policy of analyzing every failed weld to determine why they failed. If welding practices contributed to the failure, the responsible team is retrained. Additionally, briefing materials have been distributed to employees who weld rails to emphasize the importance of proper kit selection.
BNSF also enhanced welding oversight by implementing mandatory audits conducted by welding supervisors. Each supervisor is auditing 10 random thermite welds per month to confirm that the correct kit was used."
