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BNSF 1088
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LOOK LISTION LIVE
BEFORE CROSSING RR TRACKS

N E W S R E L E A S E
05/07/03 - Amtrak Engineer Passes Away From Injuries Sustained in Silver Star Accident

National Railroad Passenger Corporation
60 Massachusetts Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20002 www.amtrak.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Media Relations, 202 906-3860
ATK-03-068
May 7, 2003

AMTRAK ENGINEER PASSES AWAY FROM INJURIES SUSTAINED IN SILVER STAR ACCIDENT

WASHINGTON - Amtrak is saddened to announce the death of Larry Wayne Edenfield, the engineer of train 91 the Silver Star, which derailed yesterday in Liberty County, Ga.

"On behalf of all Amtrak employees, I offer my deepest condolences to the family of Wayne Edenfield," said David L. Gunn, Amtrak's President and CEO. "He was a veteran locomotive engineer with an excellent record. This tragedy touches us all, and we mourn his untimely passing."

Edenfield, of Macclenny, Fla. passed away today from injuries he sustained in yesterday's accident. A 30-year railroad veteran, he had 17 years of service with Amtrak.

Following yesterday's accident, Edenfield was airlifted to Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, Ga. where he passed away this afternoon with his family at his side.

The Silver Star, train 91, derailed at 7:20 a.m. E.D.T. after striking a lumber truck at a marked grade crossing in Hinesville, Ga., approximately 26 miles north of Jesup. The train, which was en route from New York to Miami, had 150 passengers and 14 crewmembers aboard at the time of the accident. A total of 22 passengers and 5 crew members were injured in the incident.

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irish1
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you know this is hard to believe. truck drivers are supose to be pros. its hard to belive the number of trucks that pull in front of trains. this happens way to often. most of amtraks fatalities are not their fault at all. the truck in illinois that pulled in front of the city of n. o. the freight engineer that ran a stop signal in front of the colonial and of course the barge that hit the bridge in alabama. none of these had to happen. my heart goes out to engineers family.

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The Copper Country Limited [Milwaukee Road] and the Peninsula 400 [CNW} still my favorites

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Amtrak207
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Look, listen, and THINK.
I'm sad and mad, simultaneously. See my other post for the foaming-at-the-mouth annoyed version. Mr. Edenfield had served the company well, coming in with the original class of '87.
I also wonder how so much attention can be paid to prisoners of war or celebrity deaths when this one is of equal importance and gets next to nothing. It may be better to avoid the media circus, I suppose.
I know what Jerome Evans and R. Brooks Woodward did. There are (too) many others on the plaque.
Did the City of New Orleans engineer ever recover?

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BNSF 1088
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amtrak207 i agree with you 100% on evrey thing you said it just makes me so mad when they say the truck driver is dead but let's keep train crews out of the picture we are the ones not at fault the truck driver is at fault and he gets all the attention.

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Southwest Chief
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Terrible shame to lose an engineer by such an avoidable all too common accident. Also a shame to most likely loose loco #199.

Posts: 579 | From: San Bernardino Subdivison | Registered: Dec 2001 | IP: Logged |

coach34135
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Actually I'm not suprised,Truck drivers are among the worst drivers out there. Even with all their training, they still take chances and do stupid things. Unfortunantly, there's too many bad truckers that make the good ones also look bad(usually the owner/ops are the good truckers). I know there are alot of good ones, but in SoCal- they're not the best. We had a trucker who U-Turned his rig in the middle of a grade xing! Crash and he's dead.
These guys also like to squeeze between my bus and the bus in front of me so he can get off the freeway...he nearly took out my left mirror and my side of the bus. Let me add, it's the company drivers that give truckers in general a bad rap.

quote:
Originally posted by irish1:
you know this is hard to believe. truck drivers are supose to be pros. its hard to belive the number of trucks that pull in front of trains. this happens way to often. most of amtraks fatalities are not their fault at all. the truck in illinois that pulled in front of the city of n. o. the freight engineer that ran a stop signal in front of the colonial and of course the barge that hit the bridge in alabama. none of these had to happen. my heart goes out to engineers family.

Posts: 139 | Registered: Oct 2002 | IP: Logged |

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