Documents from investigation into fatal train derailment north of Pueblo are now public 

Dozens of reports and interviews from the ongoing federal investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board into last year’s BNSF coal train derailment north of Pueblo are now posted online.

Investigators had earlier identified broken rail on the tracks near where six coal cars dropped onto Interstate 25 and a bridge across the highway partially collapsed, killing truck driver Lafollette Henderson of California.

Hundreds of pages of the recently released documents include interviews with railroad employees, as well as the results of tests and inspections.

The train was traveling from Denver to La Junta at a speed of 32 miles per hour when the accident happened. That's below the maximum allowed speed. Conditions and equipment appeared normal prior to the crash according to the train crew.

“As they began to approach the bridge,” the report said, ”they felt a section of rough track and that it caused ‘real bad shaking to the left and to the right.’”

The locomotive engineer slowed the train using air brakes and then used the emergency system to bring it to a stop.

The engineer "stated that he was not aware that the train had derailed at that point in time due to the clouds of dust obscuring the cars in his mirror,” the report said. “As the dust cleared, the engineer stated that he could see that some cars were ‘knocked over to the right’ and that they were pouring out their coal. He then stated that the first four cars behind the two locomotives were upright.”

He issued a radio emergency alert and called 9-1-1. 

Sarah Taylor Sulick, a spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board said it is typical to release documents gathered so far about a year into the investigation.

“None of the reports in the docket will contain analysis, probable cause or our recommendations on how to prevent similar events from occurring,” she said. “That will come later in the final report, which can take 12- 24 months to be completed.”