Deadly bus-train wreck puts railroad crossing under scrutiny
JACKSON, Miss. — The site of a train-tour bus crash that killed four people in Mississippi has a troubling history of accidents, including two this year, local and federal officials said Wednesday.
National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said the crossing in Biloxi has a hump that has caused tractor-trailers to bottom out, and the federal agency is looking into whether the steep grade played a role in the crash Tuesday. The crossing has had at least 17 accidents involving vehicles and trains since 1976.
“It sounds like a lot,” Sumwalt noted, saying investigators would compare the crossing with other similar ones.
On Tuesday, a charter bus carrying dozens of tourists to Mississippi casinos became stuck on the railroad tracks for about five minutes before a freight train barrelled into it, sending frantic passengers in all directions, witnesses said. About 40 people were hurt.