Train crash blamed on broken rail after preliminary findings of the National Transportation Safety Board released on Tuesday.
The Sunday afternoon train derailment collapsed a steel bridge built in 1958, sending the structure crashing down on top of a passing semi truck. 60-year-old trucker Lafollette Henderson was killed in the incident.
Since Sunday, the NTSB has been investigating the incident to determine a cause for the dramatic derailment. The preliminary findings of this investigation were released on Tuesday, October 17th, and show that a broken rail on the track caused the accident, reported Denver 7.
While there are automatic monitoring systems that can detect issues with the tracks and warn operators, it is unclear whether the damaged part of rail that caused the incident was equipped with these warning systems.
A portion of I-25 is currently closed for cleanup of the incident, but is expected to be reopened by the end of the week.