Investigators say one of two freight trains that collided in the Oklahoma Panhandle should have been waiting on a side track while the other passed. Three Union Pacific workers are missing and presumed dead after Sunday morning’s fiery crash. One conductor jumped from a locomotive shortly before the accident.

The National Transportation Safety Board says it found no problems with the train signals, and the agency is trying to determine who should have yielded. It also will look at the crew members’ phone records to make sure the phones hadn’t distracted them.

A truck driver who witnessed the accident said one train was traveling at 68 mph just before the crash while the other had slowed considerably as the collision became inevitable.

Original Story – June 25, 2012

Three Union Pacific crew members remain missing after two trains collided in the Oklahoma Panhandle, causing a white-hot fire that emergency crews are struggling to extinguish.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Betsy Randolph says the fire near Goodwell is contained but still burning Monday morning. A National Safety Transportation Board team is investigating the Sunday morning crash.

Each train carried two crew members, and officials say one conductor survived after jumping off the train. Three crew members are missing.

Randolph says firefighters from Fort Worth, Texas, are en route with fire-suppressing foam after hundreds of gallons of water failed to put out the blaze. After the fire is extinguished, crews must wait for the metal to cool before they can safely search the trains for any sign of the missing crew.