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Case Description
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Who caused the 1995 Palo Verde train derailment, killing Mitchell Bates?
Mitchell Bates, a 41-year-old male, was working as a sleeping car attendant aboard Amtrak’s Sunset Limited on the night of October 9, 1995, when the train derailed in the remote desert near Palo Verde, Arizona. The Los Angeles–bound train was crossing Southern Pacific tracks roughly 60–70 miles southwest of Phoenix in the early morning hours, traveling at about 50–60 miles per hour, when it hit a sabotaged section of rail on a trestle over a dry wash. Two locomotives and eight of the twe ...Read More
Mitchell Bates, a 41-year-old male, was working as a sleeping car attendant aboard Amtrak’s Sunset Limited on the night of October 9, 1995, when the train derailed in the remote desert near Palo Verde, Arizona. The Los Angeles–bound train was crossing Southern Pacific tracks roughly 60–70 miles southwest of Phoenix in the early morning hours, traveling at about 50–60 miles per hour, when it hit a sabotaged section of rail on a trestle over a dry wash. Two locomotives and eight of the twe ...Read More
Links to Additional Sources (6)
See any mistakes?Victim Details
Mitchell Bates
October 28, 2022
Male
Black / African American
Palo Verde
AZ
1995-10-09
1937-08-27
yes
$310,000
41
Mitchell
Bates
No
11/26/2025
Area Body Found:
Forum Posts (2)
I was reading through some old articles about the Sunset Limited derailment, and one thing that real... ...Read More
01/03/2024
01/03/2024
Hey everyone, I’ve been diving deep into the Sunset Limited derailment and stumbled upon something... ...Read More
06/28/2023
06/28/2023
