A collision of two Union Pacific Railroad trains late last week resulted in two fatalities.
At about 8 p.m. Thursday evening an eastbound freight train crashed into the rear end of a stationary freight train approximately 18 miles west of Cheyenne near Interstate 80, forming a pileup of twisted train cars and spilled lumber.
Fox News in Denver reported that of the four Union Pacific employees involved, one man was killed and one was initially reported missing. Conductor Benjamin Brozovich was found dead Thursday and the body of engineer Jason Martinez recovered Friday. The crew of the stopped train had already left the locomotive at the time of the collision.
Laramie resident Maureen Morrison was traveling on I-80 Friday morning when she saw the wreck. You know something is wrong, she said, when you see “things sticking straight up in the air.”
“I was surprised,” Morrison said. “I’ve seen so many wrecks, but not like that.”
Union Pacific spokeswoman Raquel Espinoza said 56 train cars from the moving train and nine from the stopped train derailed, both carrying mixed cargo. One train was carrying hazardous materials but they remained contained.
Exit 345 (Warren Road) of I-80, in addition to the truck parking area near the exit and the service road at Exit 342 (Harriman Road), will remain closed until crews can clear the debris. As of Friday the Wyoming Department of Transportation estimated cleanup could take up to 10 days.
The National Transportation Safety Board took over the crash investigation from Union Pacific on Friday and recovered the data recorders from both trains, which record information about the train’s speed, brake use and horn use.
Currently it is unclear if human error or a mechanical failure was responsible for the crash. Union Pacific tracks in Wyoming are equipped with positive train control, a monitoring and movement control system designed to automatically stop a train before an accident occurs. In addition to regularly inspecting locomotives and other equipment, Union Pacific uses a laser and camera gauge system mounted on rail cars to continuously inspect tracks. In recent years Union Pacific has taken other precautions against collision injuries and fatalities like placing locomotives, the crewed engine cars, in the middle of lines of train cars instead of at the front.
In 2017, Union Pacific had a total of two workplace fatalities, both in separate train car switching accidents. According to a Bureau of Transportation Statistics report, in 2017 there were a total of five fatalities from freight and passenger derailments and collisions.
