The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has launched a go-team to an accident involving two freight trains near Goodwell, OK. Several fatalities have been reported.

Railroad investigator Dave Watson will serve as the Investigator-in-Charge. NTSB Board Member Mark Rosekind is accompanying the team and will serve as the principal spokesman during the on-scene phase of the investigation.

Two trains collided yesterday near the Oklahoma Panhandle town of Goodwell, sparking a diesel fire and forcing the closure of a stretch of highway. Three people are reported missing.

The accident happened shortly after 10 a.m. on tracks about two miles east of Goodwell. A westbound train consisting of three locomotives and 80 rail cars collided with an eastbound intermodal train consisting of four locomotives and 108 rail cars, Union Pacific Railroad spokeswoman Raquel Espinoza told msnbc.com.

One conductor and one engineer were aboard each of the trains. The conductor of the westbound train escaped but the other three crewmembers were unaccounted for, Espinoza said.