March 8, 2016 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - At least 14 people have been injured, four of them seriously,
after a commuter train traveling from Silicon Valley to Stockton
derailed and two of its cars crashed into a local creek in California.
The incident took place in a rural area some 72km east of San Francisco on Monday night, Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) train officials told KCBS radio, adding that there were at least 214 passengers on the train at the time of the incident.
At least four of the 14 people hurt in the incident received “serious” but “non-life-threatening” injuries, the Alameda Fire Department said. Officials added that it was raining heavily at the time of the incident.
“It was dark, wet, it was raining. It was very chaotic,” Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Ray Kelly said, as cited by AP. “This is an absolute miracle that no one was killed, no passengers or first responders.”
WATCH: Train car derails, falls into creek.
According to Alameda County Sheriff's Department spokesman J.D. Nelson, one of the train cars has been partially submerged in the creek.
The first car that fell into Alameda creek was carrying six passengers and one crew member, Altamont Corridor Express train official Steve Walker said.Later all passengers were rescued and the injured were transported to the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton. - RT.
Two derailed cars were carrying ethanol and are leaking; experts &
contracts on the way to the scene to assess and work with emergency
crews to safely clean up the derailment. Conductor and Engineer on board
the train were unhurt and no other injuries were reported.
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March 5, 2016 - NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- A train has derailed near the town of Ripley, New York State,
officials said, adding that two of the derailed cars were carrying
ethanol, which is currently leaking.
Dozens of homes in the area have been evacuated.
The incident took place on Norfolk-Southern rails on Tuesday night, the NY Fire Department told Erie News.
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The train was pulling 33 cars, 14 of which derailed, the Norfolk Southern spokesperson said. The Chautauqua County Sheriff's office, however, said 18 cars derailed.
The authorities have evacuated more than 20 homes within 300 meters of the incident. According to local WGRZ news, about 45 homes have been evacuated.
Cleanup is underway along the rail line in Ripley. The ethanol leak is contained and propane is secure. @wgrzhttps://t.co/N1K4VfnOnX
“We have no estimate as to how much has leaked,” said Dave Pidgeon, manager of public relations for Norfolk Southern. “We are bringing in our experts and contractors to work with first responders to decide a plan of action.”
Two employees on board the train, the conductor and engineer, were unhurt, officials said.
Ethanol is a hazardous material which is highly flammable and causes intoxication. - RT.
Winds in excess of 41 mph toppled several empty train cars in Texas. (Lufkin Police Department)
December 14, 2015 - TEXAS, UNITED STATES - Severe “straight-line winds” in excess of 41 mph blew several train
cars in eastern Texas off a railroad bridge and onto a roadway about 20
feet below Sunday morning, according to a Facebook posting from the Lufkin Police Department.
The train cars were believed to be empty and no injuries have been reported, according to KTRE.
The first call of the derailment came into dispatch at 7:18 a.m. local time.
The wicked weather in Angelina County also led to some downed power lines, cops said.
(Lufkin Police Department)
(Lufkin Police Department)
A video posted on the LPD’s Facebook page showed electric lines sparking as rain fell.
The worst is mostly over, however, with just a half-inch to an inch of rainfall likely to come, according to the National Weather Service in Shreveport.
“Be cautious when driving this morning and if at all possible, STAY HOME!!!” an LPD Facebook post said. - FOX News.
November 9, 2015 - IOWA, UNITED STATES - Crews were called to the scene of a train derailment Monday morning, November 9, 2015.
The Des Moines County Sheriff’s Office says it happened at Hwy 34 and
210th Ave. west of Danville, Iowa where a road grader was struck by a
train.
The collision caused 2 engines and 19 rail cars to jump the
track. Train traffic in that area has been shut down. The derailed cars
were carrying coal.
Photo Courtesy: Eastern Iowa Fire Grounds Photo
Photo Courtesy: Eastern Iowa Fire Grounds Photo
Photo Courtesy: Eastern Iowa Fire Grounds Photo
The driver of the road grader, 39-year-old Brian Rhan of Ferguson,
Iowa was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Burlington.
His condition
is not known. The road grader was owned by Cessford Construction
Company.
On Saturday, a freight train with 32 cars, belonging to Warren
Buffett's BNSF, had derailed north of Alma, Wisconsin prompting several
road closures and a voluntary evacuation of the affected area.
Then on Sunday, barely 24 hours later, in another Wisconsin derailment
incident, a train, this time with 100-car, carrying crude oil, derailed
near the intersection of S. Montgomery St. and West St. in Watertown on
Sunday afternoon.
The Mayor said the derailment happened around 2:00
p.m. - KWQC.
Rescue workers search for victims in the wreckage of a derailed Amtrak
train in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania May 12, 2015. (Reuters/Bryan
Woolston)
May 13, 2015 - UNITED STATES - The US is no stranger to fatal railway accidents: over the last decade, dozens of lives were lost, and hundreds of people injured in train wrecks. All this is due to lack of funding, infrastructure and development, critics say.
The latest Amtrak train crash has left at least six people killed and dozens injured, with the cause of the crash remaining unknown.
It came on the eve of the railway budget bill that could see the funding for Amtrak slashed by 20 percent, from $1.4 to 1.13 billion.
In comparison, China’s railway budget for the next fiscal year is an estimated $128 billion, the Atlantic news portal reported.
The issues that the rail system faces in the US are an alleged lack of the federal commitment to build the high-speed efficient transport links, plus crumbling infrastructure – the latter even became the focus point of a recent documentary ‘Falling Apart’ on CBS.
WATCH: 7 dead, 200 injured in Amtrak derailment near Philadelphia.
The documentary stated that the flailing transport system is largely due to “decades of neglect” by the government.
A striking example that the film provided was that 70,000 bridges in the country need to be either replaced or dramatically repaired.
Another problem of the rail system is population density: the US is far less dense than, for instance, Spain or France. Nevertheless, even in the most densely-populated areas of the country, the railway network has been reported slow and inefficient.
Over the last decade, the US has witnessed several major train wrecks that caused both casualties and, in some cases, a serious impact on the environment.
In April 2002, a train crash in Crescent City, Florida, killed four people and left 142 injured when 21 cars of Amtrak train derailed due to broken brakes.
Days after that crash, another one in Placentia, California, left two people dead and 22 injured.
In 2003 and 2005 in Chicago, two Metra train crashes left two people killed and almost a hundred injured, having occurred at the same spot. The engineer, who was responsible for the first crash after he sped despite warnings, carried on working for the US railway system.
WATCH: Commuters scramble for alternative following Amtrak crash.
A major chain reaction crash involving six vehicles and a 50-car train in Lafayette, Indiana, in 2008, left two people dead. The rural crossing where the accident took place has seen five other fatal crashes since 1984.
Later that year, the Chatworth train collision left 25 killed and 135 injured. Two trains crashed head-on and the incident prompted new safety regulations on railway, Positive Train Control, which was signed just a month after the crash.
In November 2009, 116 cars of Union Pacific Railroad derailed, causing a major transport links closure for several days.
Three years later, the Midland train crash in Texas left four killed and 16 others injured, hitting a parade float headed to an event dedicated to war veterans.
In 2013, the Fairfield train crash saw 60 people injured, five of them critically, when a Metro-North commuter train derailed and crashed into a second train in Connecticut.
In December later that year, a major derailment happened at Spuyten Duyvil, New York City, when the conductor fell asleep, with four killed and 63 injured in the crash.
Over 2014, about 25 derailments were reported across the country, causing dozens to be injured.
In January this year, a deadly train wreck was reported near Odessa, Texas, in which at least 10 people were killed.
A month later, a New York Metro-North train hit a car and caught fire, killing six people, while in March an Expo Line train in Los Angeles collided with two cars, causing at least 21 injuries. - RT.
An
Amtrak train crashed Tuesday, May 12, 2015, near Philadelphia. Train
188 was traveling from Washington to New York City. (AP Photo/Paul
Cheung)
May 12, 2015 - PHILADELPHIA, UNITED STATES - An Amtrak train headed to New York City
derailed and tipped over in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, mangling the
front of it, tearing the cars apart and killing at least six people.
Dozens of passengers were injured, and some climbed out of windows to
get away.
Mayor Michael Nutter, who confirmed the deaths, said the scene was horrific.
"It is an absolute disastrous mess," he said. "I've never seen anything like this in my life." He said there were train cars that were "completely overturned, on their side, ripped apart." "It is a devastating scene down there," he said. "We walked the entire length of the train area, and the engine completely separated from the rest of the train, and one of the cars is perpendicular to the rest of the cars. It's unbelievable." Firefighters said dozens of people were hospitalized and six were critically injured. Train 188, a Northeast Regional, had left Washington, D.C. The front of the train was going into a turn when it started to shake before coming to a sudden stop. An Associated Press manager, Paul Cheung, was on the train and said he was watching Netflix when "the train started to decelerate, like someone had slammed the brake." "Then suddenly you could see everything starting to shake," he said. "You could see people's stuff flying over me." Cheung said another passenger urged him to escape from the back of his car, which he did. He said he saw passengers trying to escape through the windows of cars tipped on their side. "The front of the train is really mangled," he said. "It's a complete wreck. The whole thing is like a pile of metal."
EMT helping survivors taking them to the hospital #amtrak #philly Beth Davidz
Was just on #Amtrak train that crashed Beth Davidz
Amtrak Train Derails in Philadelphia http://www.myfoxla.com/story/29048426 FOX 11 Los Angeles
Another passenger, Daniel Wetrin, was among more than a dozen people taken to an elementary school afterward.
"I think the fact that I walked off (the train) kind of made it even more surreal because a lot of people didn't walk off," he said. "I walked off as if, like, I was in a movie. There were people standing around, people with bloody faces. There were people, chairs, tables mangled about in the compartment ... power cables all buckled down as you stepped off the train."
The cause of the derailment was unknown, but Amtrak said it was investigating.
The area where the derailment occurred is known as Frankford Junction and has a big curve. It's not far from where one of the nation's deadliest train accidents occurred: the 1943 derailment of The Congressional Limited, from Washington to New York, which killed 79 people.
Police swarming around Tuesday's derailment site, in Port Richmond, a working-class area, told people to get back, away from the train. They pleaded with curious onlookers: "Do NOT go to scene of derailment. Please allow 1st responders room to work."
Roads all around the crash site were blocked off. Waves of firefighters continuing toward the train cars, taking people out.
Several injured people, including one man complaining of neck pain, were rolled away on stretchers. Others wobbled while walking away or were put on city buses. An elderly woman was given oxygen.
Former U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy was on the train and said he helped people. He tweeted photos of firefighters helping other people in the wreckage.
"Pray for those injured," he said.
Amtrak said the train was carrying 238 passengers and five crew members. It said rail service on the busy Northeast Corridor between New York and Philadelphia had been stopped.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was gathering information about the derailment. It said it was launching an investigative team, which would arrive at the site Wednesday morning.
Port Richmond is one of five neighborhoods in what's known as Philadelphia's River Wards, dense rowhouse neighborhoods located off the Delaware River. Area resident David Hernandez, whose home is close to the tracks, heard the derailment.
"It sounded like a bunch of shopping carts crashing into each other," he said.
The crashing sound lasted a few seconds, he said, and then there was chaos and screaming. - AP.
April 1, 2015 - ALABAMA, UNITED STATES - Irondale police responded to a train derailment in the heart of the city on Tuesday around 8:30 p.m.
A
railroad official said there is no immediate threat and the clean up is
expected to take 10 to 12 hours to complete. Fire officials say crews
are working to upright the train cars and that the derailment could have
been a lot worse.
Norfolk
Southern said the train was pulling into the yard at Irondale when the
derailment happened. The train has three locomotives and 123 rail cars.
Source: Megan Hayes/WBRC
Source: Megan Hayes/WBRC
Source: Megan Hayes/WBRC
Source: Megan Hayes/WBRC
Police
said there is diesel fuel leaking from an engine. Norfolk Southern
officials said 13 cars have derailed. One is leaking liquid rubber and
another is leaking a small amount of caustic soda or lye, which is used
in household cleaning solutions. Environmental crews are on the scene
helping with the clean up.
Multiple cars contained rubber pellets. One of those cars spilled its cargo. The pellets are being suctioned up.
Officials
are still asking people to stay in their homes and away from the area
of city hall along 20th Streets South and North while officials clean
up. They are advising drivers to avoid the area through lunch time.
WATCH: Railroad official says no immediate threat after train derails near Irondale City Hall.
Detective Michael Mangina with Irondale police said there are no reported injuries after the derailment.
Mangina doesn't know how long this will take and says it could pose difficulties in the morning.
"We're
kind of a small police department and right now we've got a lot of our
guys tied up on this. We still have officers patrolling streets and if
this last all night or through tomorrow it's going to hurt a little bit.
We do a good job for our citizens," he said. - WBRC.
March 30, 2015 - WISCONSIN, UNITED STATES - Crews are working to clean up the site of a train derailment in Chippewa County. It happened just north of Highway 64.
Witnesses say the cars derailed Saturday afternoon, north of Bloomer.
On Sunday morning, ten cars could be seen off the tracks. It happened near the intersection of Highway 64 and County Road SS.
There's no other information available on this incident at this time.
WATCH: Crews working on train derailment in Chippewa County.
A derailed Expo Line train near USC after it struck a car.
March 28, 2015 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
- At least 21 people were injured after a Metro train derailed when it
crashed into two vehicles near the University of Southern California
Saturday, according to officials from the Los Angeles City Fire
Department.
The crash was reported at about 10:50 a.m.near the intersection of Exposition Boulevard and Vermont Avenue.
Ten
people were transported to nearby hospitals. The most serious of
injuries included a driver that needed to be extricated from a vehicle
who was in grave condition and the train operator who was in critical
condition. The eight other transports were for minor injuries.
Many people were also treated at the scene of the collision.
Metro
officials warned commuters to expect major delays on the Expo Line. Bus
shuttles were requested between Jefferson Boulevard and Vermont Avenue.
The line was expected to reopen by 8 p.m., Jose Ubaldo said, a Metro
spokesman. - NBC Los Angeles.
March 20, 2015 - INDIA
- Six people were killed and 40 others injured when three coaches of a
train derailed in Uttar Pradesh, northern India. The injured people have
been admitted to nearby hospitals.
Conflicting reports suggest there are more fatalities from the derailment than officially stated.
Several
people are also feared trapped in the wreckage, and rescue workers,
along with villagers, have been trying to locate and rescue them.
The Janta express train 1422 was traveling from Dehradun to Varanasi. “One engine and two coaches have been derailed,” according to Chief PR officer Neeraj Sharma, as quoted by IBN media outlet.
Two
lakh rupees (about $3,000) would be provided to the families of those
killed, while 50,000 rupees (about $800) would be given to relatives of
those injured in the derailment, according to a statement from the
office of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
The cause
of the derailment remains unknown, but authorities suspect that the
brakes of the engine failed, International Business Times reported.
One of the carriages involved in the accident was apparently empty, resulting in a lower death toll.
India's railroad network is one of the world's largest and carries more than 23 million passengers each day. - RT.
Metra engineers work at the scene of a train derailment near 1700 N. Hamlin Ave. (Brian Cassella, Chicago Tribune)
March 10, 2015 - CHICAGO, UNITED STATES
- A Metra train derailed Monday afternoon on Chicago’s Northwest Side,
an accident that was expected to generate “extensive delays” for
commuters.
No injuries were reported.
In an alert to
commuters, Metra announced that North Central Service train #107 near
had derailed. Metra told CBS 2 the accident occurred near the 1800 block
of North Lawndale, which is on the border of Humboldt Park and Logan
Square.
A view from Chopper 2 showed the train engine tilted slightly off the tracks.
“The train was going really slowly and then it stopped, as if it was stopping suddenly, and then after a few minutes the conductor said, ‘We had an accident. We won’t be moving anytime soon,’” a passenger who identified himself as Don Dafkais told WBBM Newsradio.
He said Metra officials were keeping the passengers on the train.
A Metra engine is off the tracks near the 1800 block of North Lawndale Monday. (CBS)
A conductor stands near a derailed Metra engine Monday. (CBS)
“Everyone on the train wants to go home,” Dafkais added. “I just want
to go back to Chicago because I was riding the train for fun.”
Passengers
were moved into the train’s two back cars, which were pulled by another
engine to Metra’s Western Avenue station, where they arrived shortly
after 5 p.m. and caught other trains. The derailed engine and two of the
train cars remained at the scene.
Metra said “extensive delays” would occur on the Milwaukee District West and North and North Central lines.
WATCH: Passengers Re-Routed After Metra Derailment.
For those who take the Milwaukee District North to Fox Lake, Metra encouraged commuters to find an alternate route. The CTA was honoring Metra passes, officials said.
The accident caused backups at Union Station in downtown Chicago. Some commuters were trying to figure out their own Plan B.
March 9, 2015 - NORTH CAROLINA - An Amtrak train collided with a tractor-trailer truck on the tracks at NC-903 and US-301 in Halifax Monday.
Pictures
from Chopper 11 HD showed the train's engine on its side and the
luggage car off at an angle to the tracks.
WATCH: Amtrak train derails in N. Carolina after truck collision.
A passenger car behind the
luggage car also derailed, but remained upright.
Halifax County officials said there were injuries.
The
cab of the truck was intact, but the low-boy trailer carrying some kind
of large load covered in a large blue tarp was obliterated by the force
of the impact.
An ABC11 Eyewitness viewer posted video of the impact on Twitter.
The
train - the #80 Carolinian - was headed north from Raleigh with an
eventual destination of New York with stops in major cities like
Philadelphia.
Unhurt passengers were being loaded onto waiting buses. - ABC11.
Train derailment a carrying crude oil causing a large.
March 7, 2015 - ONTARIO, CANADA
- A train carrying crude oil has derailed in Northern Ontario and burst
into flames. This is the fourth derailment in the province since the
start of the year.
CN Rail, the owner of the rail network in the
eastern Canadian province, said the crash took place at 2:45 am on
Saturday. No one was injured.
FILE PHOTO: Heavy equipment is used in an attempt to extinguish a fire after a crude oil train derailment 50 miles (80 km) south of Timmins, Ontario, February 16, 2015. (Reuters / Transportation Safety Board of Canada / Handout via Reuters)
Three roads near the community of Gogama, where the accident took place, have been sealed off for up to 36 hours.
The
$70-billion Canadian National Railway Company suffered its last
derailment in nearby Horneypayne just two days earlier, though there was
no chemical spillage in that crash.
But a massive explosion, also
in Gogama, just last month resulted in the spillage of more than 1
million liters of bitumen into the environment, after 15 carriage tanks
were breached, following yet another derailment. The authorities said
that the spill contaminated a nearby lake and pond, but insisted the
toxicity levels were not threatening to humans or wildlife.
Last
year Canadian authorities instituted more stringent safety standards for
rail cars carrying flammable liquids, and last month new rules
increased insurance liabilities for companies transporting dangerous
goods.
The measures are a response primarily to the Luc-Megantic
disaster of 2013, when an oil-laden train exploded after a derailment in
an urban area in Quebec, causing the deaths of 47 people.
The
industry has resisted sweeping measures, which it says will force it to
refit 50,000 train carriages in a decade, scuppering the oil-by-rail
revolution that has taken place in the last half decade, caused by
production expansion in Western Canada, and limits in pipeline capacity.
Canadian train tracks are expected to carry 700,000 barrels of oil a
day by next year, up from less than 300,000 in 2009. - RT.
