Animation of Accident Reconstruction Highway-Railroad Grade Crossing Collision, Midland, TX

This two-dimensional animated reconstruction shows the accident sequence for a highway-railroad grade crossing collision during an annual parade that was held in downtown Midland, Texas. The accident occurred on November 15, 2012 at 4:35 pm local time, when a freight train struck a parade float as it was traversing the grade crossing.
This animation is a series of images that illustrate the overall accident sequence starting from 30 seconds before impact. The animation shows the positions of two parade floats, six police vehicles escorting the parade floats or providing traffic control, and the train involved in the collision. The parade float involved in the collision was the second float in the procession and consisted of a truck tractor in combination with a flatbed trailer, with chairs on the flatbed occupied by 24 passengers. The train was a Union Pacific Freight Train consisting of four locomotives and eighty-four freight cars. The positions of the parade floats and police vehicles during the accident sequence, as well as the status of traffic and railroad crossing signals, were calculated using recorded video from several sources, physical evidence and witness interviews. The position of the train was determined from the locomotive event recorder data and onboard recorded video. The animation concludes with an aerial photograph provided by the Midland, TX Police Department showing the final positions of the train and the parade float after the accident. The animation does not depict vehicles other than those involved with the parade and the train involved in the collision. The animation also does not depict the weather or visibility conditions at the time of the accident. The animation includes a voice over narration.
The right hand side of the screen depicts the overall accident area at the grade crossing. The North direction along with a scale are also depicted. Time to collision in seconds, the advance preemption cycle, railroad warning lamps and railroad automatic gates status are represented as text in the upper left hand corner of the screen. On the bottom left hand side of the screen there is an inset depicting the distance of the train from the grade crossing with a scale. The distance to impact is indicated as text as well as the train horn and the train emergency brake status.