(The following report appeared on the Indianapolis Star website on January 6.)
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — A CSX freight train bound for Avon slammed into a runaway line of cars from the Avon rail yards early today, sending dozens of cars off the tracks and injuring two rail employees.
About 3,500 gallons of locomotive diesel fuel was spilled, and 2,000 gallons of soybean oil was released when 35 cars derailed near Girls School and Rockville roads.
The crash occurred about 3:30 a.m. after 112 cars were released accidentally without a locomotive from the CSX yard in Avon and headed east on the tracks, said Capt. Troy Wymer of the Wayne Township Fire Department.
They collided with a 100-car CSX train bound for Avon from Buffalo, N.Y.
Rescuers had to pull one of the CSX employees from the wreckage of a locomotive on the Buffalo train, Wymer said. That person and the second employee were conscious when medics rushed them to Methodist Hospital, where there was no immediate word on their condition.
The Buffalo train’s cargo included vinyl styrene, which is classified as a solid hazardous material. But the chemical was in cars well away from the collision and did not spill, Wymer said.
“At no time were any of the local residents in any danger from chemical release or fire,” he said.
Crews worked throughout the day to clean up the diesel fuel and soybean oil as nearby residents – some with homes only 35 feet from the tracks – watched, took pictures and talked about their close brush with catastrophe.
The crash shook nearby homes to their foundations. But while some in the neighborhood said they worried about the spills, many said their greater concern was with the welfare of the two CSX employees.
Anita Cook lives just a block from the tracks. At midmorning she watched the cleanup with neighbors.
“My biggest concern is the people that were on the train,” she said.