Investigators say dispatching errors led to Union Pacific train crash that killed 2 workers

AP Business Writer

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Dispatching errors and the failure of two backup systems allowed a Union Pacific train to slam into 74 railcars that had been parked on a side track for nine months in Southern California in 2022. That’s according to a National Transportation Safety Board report issued Thursday detailing what caused the crash in the desert near the Salton Sea. An engineer and a conductor died in the accident. Investigators determined that mistakes made by dispatchers at the railroad’s headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, led to the train being routed directly into the parked railcars. One dispatcher even overruled the train crew who said they had been told by a colleague that cars were still parked on that siding.