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AMARILLO, Texas (AP) — The Latest on Tuesday's freight train crash in West Texas (all times local):
11 a.m.
Authorities say the three missing crew members aboard two freight trains that collided head-on in the Texas Panhandle are presumed dead.
Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Dan Buesing said Wednesday that emergency personnel have moved from a rescue effort to recovery operation.
The two BNSF Railway freight trains were on the same track northeast of Amarillo on Tuesday morning when they collided, triggering a fireball and causing containers and cars to tumble onto one another in a pileup.
Buesing says the eastbound train had earlier stopped in Amarillo to refuel for its trip to Chicago. That full load of diesel fuel contributed to a fire that burned into the night.
The westbound train was heading to Los Angeles.
Authorities have not disclosed why the trains were on the same track.
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8:30 a.m.
The wreckage from a train collision continues to smolder as work crews prepare to remove a jumble of charred, twisted box cars strewn along tracks in the Texas Panhandle.
Three BNSF Railway crew members remain missing Wednesday, a day after two BNSF freight trains traveling on the same track collided head-on about 25 miles northeast of Amarillo.
A fourth crew member jumped from one of the trains prior to the collision Tuesday morning and was hospitalized with injuries not considered life-threatening.
Authorities have said the trains' diesel fuel fed the flames for hours and KFDA-TV in Amarillo reports hot spots continued to flare Wednesday.
Trains on the track outside the town of Panhandle can travel as fast as 70 mph, but a BNSF spokesman said Tuesday it wasn't clear how fast the trains involved in the wreck were traveling.
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