(The Associated Press circulated the following story on May 20.)
GUNTER, Texas — Two freight trains collided head-on outside this Grayson County town Wednesday, killing an engineer and injuring four other people, authorities said.
(AP Photo/Dallas Morning News, Randy Eli Grothe)
About 20 cars derailed in a tangled mess of steel, TV footage showed.
One of the injured people had severe burns and was taken by medical helicopter to a Dallas hospital, Trooper Rebecca Uresti of the Department of Public Safety said. The other victims were taken to Wilson N. Jones Medical Center in Sherman.
The engineer who was killed was on the southbound train, Uresti said. Officials did not release his name because his family had not been notified.
One of the trains was hauling rocks, and the cars on the other train were empty, said Lt. David Hawley of the Grayson County Sheriff’s Department.
A hazardous-materials crew was called to clean up spilled diesel fuel.
Both trains belong to Burlington Northern Santa Fe, spokesman Joe Faust said.
The cause of the accident wasn’t immediately known. Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board were en route, Hawley said. U.S. Department of Transportation officials were at the scene late Wednesday night.
The trains collided in a rural area about 50 miles north of Dallas. At least one locomotive burned.
The train collision is the second this month in Texas. On May 3, two freight trains collided on a Union Pacific track just south of downtown San Antonio, injuring three people.
Two locomotives and 12 freight cars from one of the trains derailed, with both engines and five of the cars falling into the San Antonio River. About 5,600 gallons of diesel fuel was spilled into the river, according to a UP spokesman.
Last week, 15 empty coal cars and two locomotives of a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train were derailed by a tornado in the Panhandle town of Hartley. No one was injured, but one of the cars ended up 300 to 400 feet away.