Highball Express

Revelations about a wreck

On Sept. 28, a 101-car Illinois Central Gulf freight train carrying some dozen esoteric and highly dangerous chemicals derailed in Livingston, La. Though no one was injured, the ensuing explosion and chemical fires forced the evacuation of 2,800 residents. In Baton Rouge, La., last week, a preliminary hearing conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board revealed that there may have been another dangerous, if less esoteric, substance on board the train that day: bourbon.

According to testimony at the hearing, the engineer and the brakeman of the train were both drinking just before, and possibly during, the brief run from Baton Rouge to the site of the wreck. Moreover, Janet Byrd, a clerk employed by the railroad, not only was in the cab of the engine at the time of the derailment but was at the controls because the engineer had dozed off. The hearing also revealed that both Engineer Edward Robertson and Brakeman Russell Reeves had been suspended several times by the railroad--Robertson for a variety of operational errors, including speed violations, and Reeves after a 1974 grand jury indictment on drug charges. Though the breakdown of a wheel assembly is still thought to be the fundamental cause of the derailment, Illinois Central Gulf has fired all five employees who were aboard the train, including the conductor and the flagman. Byrd, Robertson and Reeves have been arrested by Louisiana authorities on criminal charges of reckless handling of hazardous materials.

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