Electronic signals could have warned the Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chlorine in time to prevent it from slamming into a parked train, several railroad experts told The State.

The crash site — like about 40 percent of the nation’s main tracks and slightly more than half of Norfolk Southern’s rail lines — is in a “dark territory” without signals, government and railroad officials said Monday.

Without signals, the two-man crew of the 42-car train involved in Thursday’s wreck that left nine dead likely had no time to stop, said Howard Spier, a Miami lawyer specializing in railroad cases. He estimated the train needed at least 2,000 feet — more than a third of a mile — to stop.

“The die was cast; their fate was sealed,” said Spier, a member of the board of directors of The Academy of Rail Labor Attorneys, based in Washington, D.C.

Spier said the only warning for the crew of the moving train probably was a reflector disk at the intersection of the main and side tracks, where the manual switch is located.

The “target” on Norfolk Southern tracks typically is mounted on a tall pole and displays a red disk for the side track and a white one for the main line, he said. When the switch at the tracks’ intersection is changed, the disk signals that change.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators have not determined how far away the reflector could be seen by the approaching train, agency spokesman Keith Holloway said Monday.

Thursday’s crash caused the worst fatal chemical spill from a train wreck since a 1978 Tennessee crash that left 15 dead. The Graniteville spill sent about 240 people to the hospital and forced the evacuation of thousands.

Engineer Christopher Seeling of West Columbia, 28, was killed; the conductor, who has not been identified, is hospitalized.

Norfolk Southern spokesman Frank Brown said Monday the railroad won’t make any decisions about installing warning signals at the Graniteville site or other “dark territory” areas in the country until after the NTSB completes its investigation.

“I’m sure, going forward, we will review our processes, our equipment and our procedures,” he said. “The first priority is to help those folks there (in Graniteville).”

Spier, who has 25 years of experience with railroads, said he is representing the family of an injured Avondale Mills worker.

Robert Halstead, a national consultant and expert witness on railroad safety, said some railroad tracks have electronic warning signals placed a mile or two apart along their routes to let train engineers know of danger ahead, such as a switch in the wrong position.

“A properly maintained signaling system in this area would have detected this problem and likely would have prevented the accident,” Halstead said of the Graniteville wreck.

Halstead, president of IronWood Technologies in Syracuse, N.Y., is a consultant in a November car-train crash that killed five mill workers at a railroad crossing nearby in Graniteville. His company provides expertise on train signals and grade crossings.

Of Norfolk Southern’s approximately 16,630 miles of "main line" track, 5,578 miles — or about 34 percent — are in "dark territory" areas without track warning signals, said Brown, adding the actual percentage probably is higher because the total miles figure includes rail yards.

Nationally, there are about 167,000 miles of track on approximately 98,000 miles of railroad right-of-ways, according to the most recent figures from the Federal Railroad Administration. About 40 percent of the country’s “main line” tracks don’t have warning signals, FRA spokesman Warren Flatau said Monday. Most of those are in rural areas, Spier said.

Most of the nation’s freight, as measured in volume, moves through areas with signals, Flatau said. And “dark territory” areas aren’t necessarily more dangerous if other regulations are followed, he said.

“There hasn’t been a hazmat incident of this scale since 1978,” Flatau said. “There has been a steady evolution in terms of safety regulation and best practices.”

Flatau said there are no immediate plans to change “dark territory” regulations in the wake of the Graniteville crash. He said the agency soon would issue a new rule dealing with “positive train control,” an advanced traffic control system using Global Positioning System technology. But he declined to discuss details, including whether the rule will be mandatory.

Dave Nelson, who teaches crossing accident reconstruction courses at the University of North Florida, said Monday the nation’s warning system to prevent collisions is aging and inadequate.

In the Graniteville case, Nelson said he doubts the engineer had time to react.

“You tell me how a guy on a train is going to pick up that ... in time to stop. He can’t do it.”

Spier said a major problem in the industry is that the size of crews watching for signals has been reduced over the years from an average of four to one or two.

Only tracks running the highest-speed trains, such as passenger trains, are required by law to have signal systems on the tracks or in the cabs of locomotives, Halstead said.

Tracks that allow trains to run at 45 mph — the estimated speed of the ill-fated Norfolk Southern train — would not fall into this category, Halstead said.

Reach Brundrett at (803) 771-8484 or rbrundrett@thestate.com. Reach Fretwell at (803) 771-8537 or sfretwell@thestate.com.