APRIL 18, 2015
Uniontown police reported seven Southwest Pennsylvania
Railroad cars carrying sand derailed at East Penn and Locust streets in
Uniontown at 7:36 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015. Lt. Tom Kolencik said the only
occupants, an engineer and a conductor, were not injured.
A preliminary report by a local rail company points to
defective or missing railroad crossties and fasteners as the reason why a train
jumped the tracks in January just steps from some Uniontown homes, snarling
traffic and knocking out power for hours.
Four locomotives pulling 38 freight cars hauling fracking
sand for Marcellus shale drilling were traveling about 10 mph when the 16th car
derailed at 7:30 a.m. Jan. 22 at Locust and East Penn streets, according to the
report.
Seven cars left the tracks, but no one was hurt, including
an engineer and a conductor who were the only occupants, according to Southwest
Pennsylvania Railroad, a division of Carload Express of Oakmont, Allegheny
County. The report states the rail company is responsible for maintaining the
tracks.
The derailment caused $200,000 in damage: $125,000 to the
track and $75,000 to unspecified equipment, the report indicates.
The Federal Railroad Administration, an arm of the
Department of Transportation, investigated the accident. It has not yet
released a report listing an official cause.
But Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad, in its initial report,
identified missing or defective crossties as the primary cause, with missing or
defective spikes and other rail fasteners as a contributing cause.
Although the report was available on the FRA website, the
chief executive officer of the railroad's parent company said he was not aware
it indicated crossties were missing. These people are always clueless as to what is happening with the railroads, refusing to regulate them to increase their safety. They are pretty much bought by the railroad lobby.
Instead, Russell Peterson, chief executive officer of
Carload Express, said Friday that he had no knowledge of any missing crossties.
He said the derailment's cause has been narrowed to a timber defect at the
wooden grade crossing.
“I can't imagine railroad ties were missing,” said Peterson.
“The issue was in the grade crossing, but we're not exactly sure what
happened.”
Peterson said the grade crossing was inspected a week
earlier, with no defects noted. At the time of the derailment, he said, the
timber at the crossing was found to be “rough,” and the area was soaked with
groundwater.
“It was a peculiar situation,” Peterson said. “But it's all
new track now, and hopefully, we'll never experience anything like that again.”
East Penn Street was closed for several days for the
cleanup. At least 250 feet of damaged track had to be removed and replaced,
according to the contractor who did the work, GW Peoples Contracting. Power was
cut to some homes and businesses temporarily.
Carload Express had released a statement saying the freight
train was traveling south from Scottdale to Smithfield when the cars left the
tracks.
Its load of fracking sand was to be delivered to Hi-Crush
Partners at its Smithfield facility, manager Curt Johnson said at the time.
Houston-based Hi-Crush supplies fracking sand to natural gas
drillers, according to its website. Its specialty is Northern White sand, which
is found mainly in Wisconsin and the upper Midwest.
Source: http://triblive.com
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TRAIN CARS HAULING CARCINOGENIC FRAC SAND DERAIL IN
UNIONTOWN, PA
JANUARY 22, 2015
UNIONTOWN, PA. (AP)
Several freight cars hauling sand derailed Thursday morning
in a southwestern Pennsylvania town, some toppling over just feet away from
homes and closing nearby roads.
"We heard the train coming through like always, then we
heard a big boom," said Georgia Eans, who said a car tipped over less than
10 feet from her home. "We all jumped and ran and there it was, laying in
our yard."
Uniontown police Lt. Tom Kolencik said there were minor
injuries reported in the derailment, which occurred at about 7:40 a.m., but no
details would be released until later in the day. Only an engineer and
conductor were aboard the train, police said.
Seven sand-filled cars could be seen toppled over at the
scene, though several more may have left the tracks but remained upright,
according to emergency officials.
Officials with Carload Express Inc., of Oakmont, confirmed
some cars on one of their Southwestern Pennsylvania Railroad trains derailed. A
company official who answered the phone but refused to give his name told The
Associated Press the train had 40 cars.
It wasn't immediately clear what caused the derailment. The
railroad had crews and investigators at the scene.
Fire Chief Dane Griffith said trains carrying hazardous
materials use the same tracks and that residents were "very
fortunate" this train was hauling sand.
The cleanup was expected to take hours. Vacuum trucks were
waiting to empty each of the cars that tipped over before they can be pulled
upright onto the tracks and moved away. Several utility poles that were sheared
off along the tracks must also be repaired before train traffic returns to
normal.
"We got lucky, that it just fell, and didn't
slide," Eans said, referring to the two cars that came to rest closest to
her home. "Somebody was watching over us."