HOXIE, AR – Doug Sosbe described what he heard early Sunday morning as two Union Pacific trains collided head on.
“You could hear the wheels from the train. They sounded like they were screeching.”
He rushed to the accident site off Highway 67 and what he saw shocked him.
It was kind of scary but I was kind of afraid someone was hurt,” Sosbe said. “That’s why I went over there.”
Near one train engines, Sosbe said he saw two men–neither survived. He was able to help emergency crews get another victim into an ambulance.
Sosbe said, “He was talking a little, but I don’t know. He seemed OK.”
Monday night, National Transportation Safety Board investigators said the southbound train out of St. Louis should have stopped at a control point to wait for the northbound train out of North Little Rock to pass.
“We know that this did not happen and a collision occurred at the control point,” said Michael Hiller, NTSB investigator.
So far, the investigation shows the signals alerting conductors to slow down and stop were working, But NTSB investigators aren’t saying who’s at fault for the collision.