The San Bernardino train disaster (sometimes known as the Duffy Street incident), was a combination of two separate but related incidents that occurred in San Bernardino, California, United States: a runaway train derailment on May 12, 1989; and the subsequent failure on May 25, 1989, of the Calnev Pipeline, a petroleum pipeline adjacent to the tracks which was damaged by earth-moving equipment during the crash cleanup.
Train derailment
On May 12, 1989, at 7:36 a.m. a 6-locomotive/69-car Southern Pacific freight train (SP 7551 East, computer symbol 1 MJLBP-11) that was transporting trona, lost control while descending Cajon Pass, derailed on an elevated curve and plowed into a residential area on Duffy Street. The location is just northeast of where the 210 Foothill Freeway crosses the Lytle Creek wash.
The conductor, head-end brakeman, and two residents were killed in the wreck. Seven houses on the street immediately next to the tracks were demolished by the wreck, as were the lead locomotives and all of the freight cars. Clerks in Mojave had miscalculated the weight of the train, while the engineer and crew at the head end were unaware that one of the rear helper engines had inoperative dynamic brakes. Hence there was not enough dynamic braking force available to maintain control of train speed during the descent. When the helper engineer realized that the train speed was not being adequately controlled, he made an emergency brake application, which deactivated dynamic braking, resulting in a runaway condition. The train reached a speed of about before jumping the tracks on an elevated curve that had a posted speed limit of next to Duffy Street, sending the head-end locomotives and several cars off the high railroad bed and into houses on the street below, completely demolishing them.
Data from the locomotives' "black boxes" (event recorders) showed that the third head end locomotive's dynamic brakes were not functioning at all, although the sound of the cooling fans misled crews into believing dynamic braking was functional. It was also determined after the wreck that the engineer operating the helper locomotives knew of the faulty dynamic brakes on one of his units, but did not communicate that information to the head end crew. The combination of weight miscalculation, poor communication and faulty brake equipment resulted in a total train weight that was too great to adequately control speed on the downhill grade. Once dynamic braking had been defeated by the helper engineer's emergency brake application, the enormous weight of the heavily loaded cars caused rapid acceleration that could not be resisted solely by mechanical braking. The train catapulted from the 35 mph curve next to Duffy Street at 110 mph, scattering locomotives and cars, as well as lading. There was an SD40T-2, two SD45Rs, and an SD45T-2 locomotive on the head end, an SD40T-2 and SD45R on the helper end, and 69 hopper cars loaded with trona.
Train and helper crews of Southern Pacific 7551 East
The crew that was called for train 7551 East were as follows: Frank Holland, Engineer (age 33) Everett Crown,† Conductor (age 35) Allan Riess,† Brakeman on 3rd locomotive (age 43) Lawrence Hill, Engineer on helper unit 7443 (age 42) Robert Waterbury, Brakeman on helper unit 7443 (age 57) (†=Killed in the wreck.)
Killed in the wreck were Conductor Crown (fatally crushed in the nose of unit SP 8278) and Brakeman Riess (fatally crushed in the cab of unit SP 7549), along with two young boys, Jason Thompson (age 10 years) and Tyson White (age 7 years), who were crushed and asphyxiated when the train destroyed one of the houses on Duffy Street.
Engineer Holland remained in his seat at the control stand in unit SP 8278 at the head of the train, and suffered several cracked ribs and a punctured lung. However, he was able to crawl out of his wrecked locomotive and was helped down by eyewitnesses on the scene. Engineer Hill and Brakeman Waterbury, who were in the helper locomotives, received minor injuries.