Amtrak Big Bayou, Alabama Derailment 09/22/23
This is by far Amtrak's worst accident. At 2:53 a.m. on September 22, 1993, the Sunset Limited (#2), Amtrak's only transcontinental passenger train, plunged into Big Bayou Canot fourteen miles north of Mobile, Alabama, killing 42 passengers and 5 crew members (three in the locomotive and two dining car workers in the dorm car). Eight minutes earlier at 2:45 a.m., a towboat, pushing six barges and lost in a dense fog, unknowingly bumped into Big Bayou Canot Bridge, knocking the track out of alignment, causing the train to derail and plunge into the mucky waters of the bayou. Locomotive P40 #819 was about 3 weeks old when it was destroyed in the accident. The three locomotive, baggage car, trans/dorm, and first two coaches ended up in the swampy waters while the third coach (34040) was left hanging off the end of the bridge.
