Driver of truck, two passengers in Amtrak accident identified

RENO -- Workers wearing hazmat suits dug through burnt-out rail cars and twisted metal Monday at the scene of a horrific collision between a tractor-trailer and an Amtrak train. New details surfaced about the spotty driving record of the man at the wheel of the truck.

Records from the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles revealed that truck driver Lawrence Valli, 43, of Winnemuca received four speeding tickets since 2008, including three for driving a school bus over the posted speed limit in California in a 10-month period.

National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener said that Valli was going "at a considerable speed" in a 70 mph zone before the crash and added that federal investigators were examining the truck's wheels, tires and brakes for details on the speed and the truck's braking capacity.

SOME WRECKAGE OBLITERATED BY FIRE

Investigators are looking for clues into why he drove into the double-decker Amtrak train some 70 miles east of Reno even as the crossing's flashing lights warned him it was approaching. At least six people died, and about 20 were injured. Five passengers remain unaccounted for, though investigators aren't sure whether they were on the train at the time of the crash.

"Everything is all blackened, and white and gray from the fire so it makes it very difficult to sort out the human remains from the rest," said Dennis Dirkmaat, a forensic anthropologist from Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa. "Rather than just pulling out bodies and trying to sort through them later, we're trying to note where they're located and trying to make sure we collect all the remains."

The Nevada Highway Patrol released names Monday of two passengers who were killed: 58-year-old Francis Knox and her 18-year-old adopted granddaughter, Karly Knox, of Seward, Neb.

The elder Knox was described by her pastor in Nebraska as a church-going woman who was well-known in the small town and volunteered in the youth ministry and at a local community center and the Civil Air Patrol. She and her granddaughter, who was known to friends as Annie, were taking a relative back to California, where the family had lived before.

"She always had a smile and was willing to help out, to do anything," said Lowell Myers, an associate pastor at Hillcrest Evangelical Free Church who is serving as the family's spokesman.

The relative of Francis and Karly Knox was able to escape the train with no serious injuries, Myers said.

Forensic anthropologists, law enforcement officials and federal investigators are still trying to pinpoint why Valli, the sole occupant of the semi -- which had two empty gravel trailers behind it -- skidded the length of a football field Friday in the heart of the Forty-Mile Desert before ramming into the rail car.

The Zephyr train was en route from Chicago to Emeryville, Calif., and had made several stops before starting the long traverse through the Sierra Nevada to California. The big rig ran into the train around 11:25 a.m. Friday.

FIRE DELAYED WORK OF INVESTIGATORS

Two other drivers of semis outfitted to haul gravel watched helplessly as the truck skidded and smashed into the cars, sparking a massive fire that burned so intensely it delayed investigators' search of the wreckage. The wreckage includes two torched rail cars and another that was badly burned.

"I looked up north side, and I saw smoke, and I looked down the other side, and I saw flames and the side of the train ripped back like a sardine can," said Jim Bickley, a property manager from El Dorado Hills, Calif., who was on the train traveling home with his wife. "People were trying to jump out of the emergency windows, and there was panic going on."

Records show Valli was issued a commercial driver's license in Nevada on May 6, said Tom Jacobs, spokesman for Nevada DMV.

The records show Valli's school bus violations occurred July 6, 2008, Sept. 9, 2008, and May 12, 2009. It was not clear where those citations were issued in California and whether children were in the buses.

He was also ticketed in August 2008 in California for not wearing a seat belt while driving a commercial vehicle.

Valli also received a speeding ticket on Sept. 22, 2009, in Alabama for exceeding the speed limit by 11-20 mph.

Trooper Chuck Allen said authorities would consider all factors as they investigated the cause of the accident, including fatigue, driver inattention, and drugs or alcohol, with toxicology and autopsy results due within days.

Weener said investigators also might subpoena Valli's cellphone records and said the driver's professional commercial driving record "is an area we will be taking a very close look at."

Investigators planned to meet with his trucking company today and review the driver's medical history, training and experience, Weener said.