Mitchell Bates

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 ...

1995 Palo Verde

20 Years Later