Here’s how Biloxi and CSX are at fault after bus-train collision, NTSB says

A lack of communication between CSX and the city of Biloxi to coordinate and take action to remedy a high-grade crossing at Main Street and Esters Boulevard was the probable cause of a collision between a freight train and a motor coach on March 7, 2017, according to a report from the NTSB.

The National Transportation Safety Board conducted a hearing Tuesday in Washington to hear a report on the crash and to hear recommendations on how best to prevent another crash from happening at the site.

The crash happened when a motor coach operated by ECHO Transportation left Silver Slipper Casino in Hancock County headed to the IP Casino Resort in Biloxi.

The bus driver used a commercial vehicle GPS application to route the trip, which would have taken the bus onto Interstate 10. Instead, he reprogrammed it for a scenic route, which took the bus along U.S. 90 to Main Street and over the high-grade crossing.

Taking the scenic route is a common practice for motor coaches.

The bus became stuck and the driver tried to get passengers evacuated, but the NTSB report said that because of the age of the passengers, ranging from 50 to 88, they could not exit quickly enough to get everyone clear before the train hit the bus.

The NTSB also said the train had slowed because of a warning that a previous crossing was blocked and did not come back up to speed when the engineer saw the bus on the tracks. He applied emergency brakes about 500 feet from the Main Street crossing and had slowed to 19 mph at impact.

Four people died in the collision.

Because of the line of sight on Main Street going north, the bus driver had no reason to believe he could not clear the crossing by raising the rear axle. The steepness of the grade north of the tracks is considerably more than the grade on the south side, the NTSB illustrated with photos during its presentation.

The NTSB said that there were 23 groundings at that intersection after maintenance was conducted there in February 2014, but neither CSX nor Biloxi took action to reduce the safety risk at the crossing. The board noted that an exclusion sign barring commercial trucks, motor coaches and RVs was added after the March 2017 collision.

Steve Prouty with NTSB also said during the report that collisions at the crossing were being tracked, but not in a way that would indicate there was an issue. Also, he said, continued maintenance would cause elevations to continue to rise with no clear plan for when a reconstruction of the crossing should take place and who was responsible for that reconstruction.

“It was not the first time a vehicle had grounded at the Main Street crossing, but no one had taken action to assess the risk in Biloxi and the Federal Highway Administration did nothing to mitigate the issue at the crossing,” said Robert Molloy of the NTSB.

The board issued 11 recommendations on grade crossing safety and added specific criteria including reconstruction and closings.

The NTSB also noted the importance of motor coach drivers conducting pre-trip safety briefings for all passengers.

Another issue in the report by NTSB is that there are 29 railroad crossings in Biloxi that were outside the guidelines set by NTSB for high-grade crossings. And of those 29, only four were marked with low-ground clearance signs. The Main Street crossing was not listed as a high-grade crossing, which is the Mississippi Department of Transportation’s responsibility to report to the Federal Railroad Administration.

Bilxoi issued a statement on the report Tuesday afternoon:

“Before the tragic accident last year, we had placed warning signs identifying dangerous crossings at steep grades. We’ve been negotiating for three years with CSX to reduce the amount of railroad crossings in east Biloxi. We’ve banned large buses and trucks from some crossings.

“The city has taken the lead with the Mississippi Department of Transportation on reconfiguration of the Main Street crossing. We will be requesting financial support from CSX in making this and other crossings safer.

“This is a complex oversight issue involving CSX’s control of the tracks and Mississippi Department of Transportation’s jurisdiction. We are limited in what we can do, but we will continue to work with both of them to improve safety at all rail crossings in Biloxi.”

NTSB recommendations

Federal Highway Administration

• 1. Issue new guidelines for low-grade crossings, including signage and exclusions, at high-profile crossings and inform state DOTs of the interpretations.
  
  
• 2. Develop a guideline addressing when vehicle exclusion signs should be used.
  
  
• 3. With help from federal rail agencies, develop criteria to establish when a high-grade crossing should be reconstructed, closed or otherwise have the risk posed.
  
  

Federal Railroad Administration

• 4. Assist the Federal Highway Administration to develop when a high-grade crossing should be reconstructed, closed or otherwise have the risk posed.
  
  

Mississippi Department of Transportation

• 5. Establish communication channels with local municipalities, particularly the city of Biloxi, to monitor the safety of grade crossings.
  
  

City of Biloxi

• 6. Implement a program to document vehicle groundings at grade crossings and share with the MDOT.
  
  

American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials

• 7. Assist the FHWA to develop criteria to establish when a grade crossing should be reconstructed, closed or have the risk posed by its unsafe vertical profile.
  
  

American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association

• 8. Assist the FHWA in developing specific criteria to establish when a grade crossing should be reconstructed, closed or have the risk posed by its unsafe vertical profile.
  
  

Association of American Railroads and the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association

• 9. Inform members of the circumstances of the Biloxi grade crossing crash and emphasize the importance of communication with local and state agencies regarding railroad maintenance activities and vehicle groundings on grade crossings.
  
  

Class I railroads

• 10. Implement a process to notify and coordinate with local and state transportation agencies responsible for highway maintenance at grade crossings as early as possible before conducting maintenance that has the potential to increase track elevation.
  
  
• 11. Implement a process to make information about incidents of vehicle groundings that did not result in a crash on your railroad available to appropriate state DOTs.
  
  

This story was originally published August 7, 2018 at 1:13 PM.