Western Railroad Discussion > Extreme Evidence

My son was watching COPS on Court TV and shouted for me to come there and look..they were showing a commercial about the next show, "Extreme Evidence", which is going to talk about an Amtrak wreck I'm assuming back in 1993 in Alabama? or Mississippi? where the barge hit the bridge, causing the bridge to collapse when the train went across..

Excuse me if this has already been discussed, but might be worth watch'n...

I'd rather hear about your trip to LA.

Did you go to the Loop, or Fullerton?

Did you do any train watching or did you get
dragged about searching for Suzanne Summers' house?

From the CourtTV website: On Wednesdays at 8 pm, so this must be tonight's episode

"Visibility Zero"

On September 22, 1993, Amtrak’s eastbound Sunset Limited en route from Los Angeles to Miami, carrying 220 persons on board, roared across the Big Bayou Canot Bridge near Mobile, Alabama and derailed. Three locomotive units, the baggage and dormitory cars, and two of the six passenger cars were catapulted into the water. It was the worst train disaster in U.S. history. The National Transportation Safety Board was called in to investigate and used forensic engineering and metallurgy to discover the cause of this accident.

F40PHR231 Wrote:
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> From the CourtTV website: On Wednesdays at 8 pm,
> so this must be tonight's episode
>
> "Visibility Zero"
>
>It was the worst train disaster in U.S. history.

I certainly hope the story itself was more accurate than the trailer....especially this!

lowwater

>It was the worst train disaster in U.S. history.

>I certainly hope the story itself was more accurate than the trailer....especially >this!


I agree, the wreck was the worst one in Amtrak's history, but certainly not in US history.

Agreed that it is the worst in recent history or Amtrak's history but not nearly in US history. Worse still are the Wellington disaster, numerous passenger train wrecks in the NE and the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway wreck in Nashville-officially the worst US passenger train wreck by number of fatalities (101+).

the sunset wreck was no fun especially those of use that had to respond

we had no real idea where to go especially since the report could not give the exact location.

all we could figure was the block it was in, but there are many bridges in that block.

most likely the worst possible location for access

the city of mobile had a fireboat on scene for almost a week

the correct name for the waterway was Bayou Canote

Shane,

Unfortunately I didn't get to do any railfann'n in LA..I did see a few Amtrak and Metrolink trains on our drive up Pacific Coast Hwy to the Hearst Castle...and I saw Dolores Yard near Long Beach...that was about it..

I had a chance that last Saturday we were there to go out to Tehachapi or go to the Rose Bowl..Time wise, guess which route I took..LOL..didn't have enough time to drive out to the Loop...besides, I wouldn't have gotten to see them bring Reagan's body by in the hearse on the way to Santa Monica funeral home..

i watched the show last night,they did a real good story on what exactly happend and who was at fault, and all the other chain of events that led to the disaster.
JC