Railroad Accident Report
Collision of Burlington Northern
Santa Fe Freight Train With
Metrolink Passenger Train
Placentia, California
April 23, 2002

NTSB Number RAR-03/04
NTIS Number PB2003-916304
PDF Document(856 KB)

Executive Summary: On Tuesday, April 23, 2002, about 8:10 a.m. Pacific daylight time, eastbound Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway freight train PLACCLO3-22 collided head on with standing westbound Southern California Regional Rail Authority passenger train 809 on the No. 2 track at Control Point Atwood in Placentia, California. Emergency response agencies reported that 162 persons were transported to local hospitals. There were two fatalities. Damage was estimated at $4.6 million.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the April 23, 2002, collision of a Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train and a Metrolink commuter train in Placentia, California, was the freight train crew’s inattentiveness to the signal system and their failure to observe, recognize, and act on the approach signal at milepost 42.31. Contributing to the accident was the absence of a positive train control system that would have automatically stopped the freight train short of the stop signal and thus prevented the collision.

The safety issues identified during this accident investigation are as follows:

• Burlington Northern Santa Fe train crew attentiveness;
• Burlington Northern Santa Fe signal awareness form procedures;
• Passenger car survival factors;
• The absence of positive train control systems.

As a result of this accident investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board makes safety recommendations to the Federal Railroad Administration, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Company, and the Association of American Railroads. The Board also reiterates a previously issued safety recommendation to the Federal Railroad Administration.