DazeBlog

The historic Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus train derailed near Lakeland, Fla., yesterday, killing an elephant trainer and a clown but barely jostling the elephants and big cats in a part of the train that remained on the track.

Fifteen circus workers were injured, none seriously, when a wheel on the 22nd car apparently broke apart, derailing 17 cars of the 53-car train along the CSX Transportation main line from Tampa to Orlando, where the circus was scheduled to perform today.

Elephant trainer Theodore Svertesky, 39, of Bridgeport, Conn., died while riding in one of 16 derailed passenger cars that had been converted into living space for the 200 performers and workers aboard. One flatcar with circus equipment also derailed behind the passenger cars. The body of clown Ceslee Conkling, 28, of Fort Worth, was found in the wreckage after an all-day search.

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Twenty-five children aboard were uninjured. The circus train essentially is a rolling city that includes a three-teacher school for show children, as well as 24-hour food service in a "pie car" and other recreational and management facilities.

The derailment began in the middle of the train, leaving the three locomotives and more than 20 cars -- including the four big-animal cars -- on the rails, plus more than a dozen equipment cars at the end of the train. Animals travel in windowless converted baggage cars, always placed directly behind the locomotive to give them the smoothest ride.

There were preliminary indications that a steel wheel on the 22nd car from the front of the train broke apart and the crippled car traveled for 12,285 feet -- more than 2 miles -- before hitting a switch and piling up the train.

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Jim Hall, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board in charge of the investigation, said pieces of the wheel had been found and a witness reported seeing it come apart. Other witnesses also reported seeing the train rolling along with a wheel off the track.

It is common in such situations that a derailed wheel will bounce along on the road bed until it hits another obstruction such as a switch or a road crossing, causing a wreck.

Hall said the dead trainer and clown were in passenger cars that were five cars and 10 cars behind the car with the broken wheel.

Among other things, safety board metallurgists will examine the pieces of the broken wheel to determine what might have caused it to crack.

Donna Rhorer, a spokeswoman for CSX, said the train, which was traveling about 40 mph, had passed a defect detector shortly before it crossed an intersection where marks in the pavement indicated that one wheel was not on the track. She said no signs of trouble were detected.

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Most of the cars that were not derailed were sent on to Orlando where circus officials were deciding whether to go ahead with this afternoon's show.

Railroad officials said the train's emergency brakes would have activated immediately when the derailment separated air brake hoses between cars. An engineer would then have released the engine brakes and "stretched out" the train to bring any cars that had not derailed to a smooth stop, they said.

"I doubt they {the animals} even knew it happened," said circus spokesman Mark Riddell. The circus usually travels with 18 elephants, 32 horses, 13 large cats and various exotic animals.

Circus spokeswoman Laura Fitzgerald said a veterinarian examined the animals and found all in good shape.

Shortly after the accident, a television news helicopter owned by WESH-TV crash-landed in at a school about a half-mile from the scene, injuring the pilot and a photographer. "It's a real three-ring circus out here," said one board investigator.

The "blue" train, one of two owned by the circus, had just begun its yearly nationwide tour after a show in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Wednesday, followed by filming for circus commercials.

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