THE WRECK OF AMTRAK SUNSET-LIMITED - NEWS COVERAGE OF A MASS-TRANSPORT DISASTER

Using the 1993 crash of Amtruk's Sunset Limited in Mobile, Alabama, th is study examines the safety education provided by seven newspapers. A total of 117 news stories were analysed for five primary themes: over all story category, passenger safety theme, train personnel safety the me, train safety theme and rescue safety. Sixty-three pel cent were fo und to contain at least one safety theme paragraph within the larger s tory. A total of 631 paragraphs were identified as safety theme paragr aphs, 32 per cent of which were passenger safety themes, 8 per cent we re train personnel safety, 31 per cent were train safety and 29 pet ce nt were rescue safety themes. As in previous research, safety themes r arely appeared alone; more often than not, a story contained a mixture of all themes. Some safety themes appeared more frequently than other s, but overall the safety themes present a complete view of the safety issues surrounding the crash. Safety themes are embedded within a sto ry framework which reflects the three stages of disaster news work. Im ages of normalcy tragically disrupted by the crash abound as do images of passengers escaping and aiding others, Disaster relief personnel a nd aviation officials are shown working to restore order and solve tit le mystery of the crash, Within this framework we can learn what to ex pect when a train crashes and what we might have to do in a similar si tuation.