NTSB: Train worker likely to survive if he hadn’t jumped before Roswell train collision

Officials say a crew member who was aboard a freight train that struck a parked train in New Mexico probably would have survived if he had not jumped from the train right before impact.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators said Wednesday that the locomotive’s survival area was completely intact after it struck the train parked on a siding. They say a manually operated switch was locked in place, sending the train onto the side track.

One of the two Southwestern Railroad crew members on board was killed. The other was injured.

Officials say the crew applied their train’s brakes to try to stop it as the accident unfolded Tuesday morning about 10 miles southeast of Roswell.

The NTSB says the train was going 31 mph at the time of impact.