3 missing after trains collide in Texas

Three crew members are missing following a head-on train collision Tuesday in Panhandle, Texas.

The BNSF Railway freight trains were on the same track when they collided, The Associated Press reports, and several of the boxcars carrying assorted consumer goods burst into flames. A BNSF spokesman said each train had two crew members, and one was able to jump from his train before the crash; his condition is unknown. The spokesman also said it's not known how fast the trains were going when they collided, or why they were both on the same track.

"I don't know how anyone survived," witness Billy Brown told AP. "It's terrible. I've seen a number of train wrecks but I've never seen one like this." BNSF has said it will meet a 2018 federal deadline to start using positive train control (PTC), technology that uses GPS, wireless radios, and computers to monitor trains and stop them or slow them down when they are close to derailing or hitting another train.

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