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13 years later, another deadly rail crash

An engineer's worst fear occurs. A trucker dies.

By ABBIE VANSICKLE and JUSTIN GEORGE
Published November 9, 2006

Parts of the semitrailer's frame were embedded in the locomotive's front end. The collision caused the train to lose power, and a fire broke out, but the train stayed on the tracks.
	[Times photo: Skip O'Rourke]

TAMPA - Amtrak engineer Billy Parker felt lucky to survive a deadly 1993 train and diesel tanker crash.

Distraught, Parker quit running trains for a decade. He joined a nonprofit group to teach the public about the dangers of rail crossings.

He returned to the controls three years ago, terrified of another collision.

On Wednesday, it came. A semitrailer truck stopped on the tracks in front of Amtrak's Silver Star, causing a crash that killed the truck's driver.

"Your life goes in slow motion," said Parker, 55. "I went into the engine room, and that saved my life."

The crash occurred at 1:45 p.m. at CSX Intermodal in east Tampa. Parker was driving his usual route from New York to Miami. Train No. 91 carried 75 passengers, said Amtrak spokeswoman Tracy Connell. With a crew of 14, the train left Lakeland and was nearing Ybor City, when Parker saw a truck stopped on private tracks at 1901 N 62nd St.

He knew it was going to be bad, he said. He put on the emergency brake and got on the radio, knowing he could do no more.

"Hold on," he told the conductor. "We're going to hit it."

The impact killed the driver, a Seffner father of three, and embedded parts of the truck's metal frame into the front of the train. Two Silver Star passengers were hospitalized with neck and back pain, said Tampa Fire Rescue Capt. Bill Wade. A third reported difficulty breathing, Wade said.

Tampa police identified the truck driver as Henry James Montgomery Jr., 45, who was at the train yard to trade cargo containers.

Montgomery, a Tampa Bay Tech grad whose family called him "Bullet," made the trek to CSX daily, said his sister, Brenda Bathe. Just 18 when he started driving for Henry Montgomery Trucking, he took over his father's business about a year ago, said Henry James Montgomery Sr.

"If I told you about him, all I could tell you is good," his father said.

Daughter Angel Montgomery, 25, said her father would do anything for his children.

Preliminary reports indicate that the trucker was trying to back up but got stuck, said Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Warren Flatau.

The crossing point was equipped with working warning lights and gates, Flatau said.

Typically, trains travel between 10 and 25 mph over the crossing, he said, and the maximum allowable speed is 79 mph.

No other train-vehicle collisions have occurred at the crossing point since at least 1975, records show.

The collision caused the train to lose power and fire broke out in one of the train's two locomotives, Amtrak spokeswoman Connell said.

The train's two front wheels came off, but the train stayed on the tracks, Wade said.

"It felt like someone put the brakes on," said Sharon Gill, from New Jersey, who was sitting in one of the sleeper cars up front. "Then I felt a jolt."

Gill didn't feel a collision, just the brakes snapping the train to a quick stop.

"It was like a big jerk," she said.

Train attendants ran past her toward the locomotive carrying fire extinguishers. Smoke billowed outside from under the train. The attendants soon came back to the sleeper car and ushered everyone to the back.

"Everything's fine, everything's under control," Gill recalled them saying. "We just have to move you to the back of the car."

As fire crews and emergency workers arrived at the scene, passengers began to get off the train. The weary-looking passengers carried their bags to a waiting bus, which delivered them to Tampa's Union Station.

Lori Smith paced the terminal at Union Station for four hours, puffing on cigarettes between shaken phone calls from her 18-year-old son Eric, who from inside the train caught a glimpse of the driver who died. It was Eric's first train ride ever-a commute from North Carolina to Tampa, to move in with his mom.

"He is totally freaked out right now," Lori said, after a long drag of smoke. She waited for him to arrive by bus.

Nicole Thompson kept an eye on her grandson Tailer, who scooted his toy bikes across the pavement. Thompson counted the hours her mom had been on the train from New York: more than 25.

"My mom doesn't like to fly," she said. "She thought it was safer to take a train."

Then the bus arrived with train passengers. Thompson and Tailer waited on the terminal as passengers filed out. Eric Smith just embraced Lori. Then, mother and son walked away holding hands.

As passengers were reunited with their families, engineer Parker found unexpected arms to comfort him. After a close call on Sunday - a gas tanker stopped on the tracks near Hillsborough's County Line Road - Parker's wife, Trish, had surprised him by coming to Tampa, driving four hours from the couple's Fernandina Beach home.

"When I called her to let her know what happened, she was 10 minutes away," Parker said.

As the couple walked from the wreckage, Parker's eyes filled with tears.

He thought of the previous crash. He wanted to tell the public the message of Operation Lifesaver, the nonprofit group where he worked during his 10 years away. The program aims to prevent such crossing disasters.

"The professional drivers need to know that they can't stop on the tracks," he said.

He doesn't know if he'll ever drive another train.

"I don't know," he said. "I'm just fortunate once again."

Staff writers Rebecca Catalanello and Alexandra Zayas contributed to this report. Abbie VanSickle can be reached at 226-3373 or vansickle@sptimes.com.

[Last modified November 9, 2006, 00:40:00]