00:00On June 28, 2004, a Union Pacific Manifest train was making its way through San Antonio,
00:12Texas.
00:13This train consisted of four locomotives on the head end, with SD70Ms 4929 and 4811 in
00:20the lead, GP6020-66 behind, and SD70M4545.
00:29Behind were about 80 railcars and including chlorine gas.
00:36This train was bound to meet another train, a BNSF Manifest, with unknown locomotives
00:43on the head end and 123 cars.
00:47This train was going into a parallel sighting, and 4929 had to stop, wait until the BNSF
00:58was out of its way, and then continue.
01:01However, that day, that did not go down.
01:054929's crew, for some reason, did not obey the signals, and they went past the yellow
01:14signal and the red signal, the danger signal.
01:18Then they go past the entrance of the sighting, and they round a curve, and they see the exit
01:25of the sighting, and they see the BNSF Manifest train trying to exit.
01:31However, it's far too late, as they try to apply the brakes to prevent hitting the midpoint
01:40of the train, and then disaster strikes.
01:52UP4929 sideswipes the BNSF Manifest, causing all four locomotives and multiple railcars
02:00from both trains to fly off the tracks.
02:024929 goes off to the side, while 4811 piles up behind it, suffering prime mover damage,
02:08while 2066 slams into its underbelly, and then getting hit from the other side by 4545.
02:14Behind 4545, tanker cars start piling up and leaking their contents.
02:19It kills three people, one crew member, and two residents nearby.
02:25Then the cleanup came, where they removed all the derailed stuff off the tracks, and
02:32then moved the rest of the trains out of the way, and the locomotives were totaled.
02:394929, 4811, 2066, and 4545 were damaged beyond repair and scrapped, along with multiple other
02:51railcars on site.
02:54Then the question came, how did this accident happen?
02:59How did a Union Pacific train collide into a BNSF train, and then leak contents and kill
03:06three people?
03:08Well, it did not take long to find out that UP4929 was not scheduled to go there, and
03:16was supposed to stop and let the BNSF Manifest clear the way.
03:22However, the UP crew did not obey the signals they were given, and thus they kept going,
03:31and saw the BNSF train in their way.
03:34They tried to hit the brakes, but 4929 sideswiped the railcar, then kept moving, and then derailed
03:41on the switch, causing the rest of the locomotives and some of the railcars to derail and kill
03:50three people due to the toxic gas.
03:54In the end, the crew was put at fault for the accident, and was deemed human negligence.
04:20For more information visit www.fema.gov
