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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Engineers Suspended Over Runaway Train

Associated Press

Two Montana Rail Link engineers have been suspended after their train got away from them last week when it rolled backward out of Garrison.

The two engineers, who were not identified, are being “held out of service” pending results of drug and alcohol tests and a fact-finding hearing, said Rail Link spokeswoman Lynda Frost.

Both men have about five years with the railroad. A decision on disciplinary action will come after a hearing at which the engineers will tell Rail Link officials what happened to cause the derailment.

Frost on Friday said the railroad’s own investigation showed the train’s engineer did not properly set the brakes when he and the assistant engineer got off the train to add extra locomotives for the trip over the Continental Divide to Helena.

The engineers did not immediately notice when the train began to roll backward down an incline and back into the Clark Fork Valley, the railroad spokeswoman said.

“When they did see the train moving, they attempted to pursue, but it was traveling too fast by that time for them to reach it,” Frost said. By the time the 107-car train was switched onto a siding at Bonita and intentionally derailed, it was going 51 mph and had passed unmanned through Drummond.

The incident began shortly before 6:30 p.m. Monday, when the eastbound train rolled westbound out of Garrison. The train was derailed at about 7:25 p.m. when it was switched onto a siding 46 miles west of Garrison. Forty-nine cars, from the back of the train forward, came off the track.