Cheney derailment caused by human error

By BECKY THOMAS

Staff Reporter

Though heavy snow was falling near the time of a Dec. 29 train derailment on the Eastern Washington Gateway railroad, the cause of the Cheney accident near the Cheney-Spokane Road was simple human error.

EWG manager John Howell said the engineer and conductor on board the locomotive failed to observe a color signal inside the cabin that signifies the direction of the switch, called the “switch indicator.” The switch was facing the opposite direction of the train's progress and cause it to derail.

“The switch indicator was clearly red and the engineer failed to observe that,” Howell said.

With the investigation complete, Howell said EWG submitted a report to the Federal Railroad Administration detailing the derailment and cause.

Howell said the environmental cleanup of spilled diesel fuel had been completed.

Becky Thomas can be reached at [email protected].