(The following story by Laura Jesse appeared on the San Antonio Express-News website on October 12.)
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — A train derailment Monday on the Southwest Side, the fourth in five months in Bexar County, is further fueling the ire of local officials concerned about safety and hazardous materials routes.
Nine cars in a 71-car Union Pacific train traveling from Laredo to Baton Rouge, La., derailed about 9 a.m. near Quintana and Cassin roads.
Seven of the cars were carrying vehicles, and the remaining two were empty tankers, said Mark Davis, a spokesman for Union Pacific.
There were no injuries or hazardous materials involved, and the cause of the accident is not yet known.
County Judge Nelson Wolff, who has been pressuring the company for answers since the first derailment in May, surveyed the scene Monday afternoon.
He told reporters he spoke with Union Pacific President Jim Young earlier in the day and was assured the company is going to conduct a thorough investigation.
“We’re disappointed and worried,” Wolff said. “I know they’re taking the right steps, but obviously they’re not there yet.”
Wolff and Young exchanged letters late last month after the third train wreck this year.
Wolff, who wants to move rail lines away from downtown, demanded the company show him evidence it is improving safety in Bexar County.
Young wrote back the same week to detail some of the company’s proposals, a move that seemed to have smoothed Wolff’s frustration. Young said Union Pacific changed protocols and communication procedures in locomotive cabs to promote awareness and stepped up training for workers.
The company also is planning to add management positions, 154 trainmen and 35 engineers in San Antonio, the letter said.
District 4 Councilman Richard Perez, who was on the scene to assess the situation and address the media Monday morning, said he is “dumbfounded” by the latest string of derailments in Bexar County.
In May, a wreck near Brackenridge High School injured three men and spilled 5,600 gallons of diesel along the San Antonio River. Four cars that did not derail were carrying highly explosive propane.
In June, a derailment in South Bexar County released chlorine, killing three people and sending 49 people to the hospital for breathing problems and other injuries.
Last month, 50 railcars rolled backward and struck an 80-car train east of Brackenridge High School. Twenty-seven cars derailed without any injuries or hazardous leaks.
“I am completely dumbfounded as to why this continues happening here,” Perez said. “It is frustrating that we have no say and there’s nothing we can do but gripe publicly.
“I do not know what happened (Monday), but I have had it. Union Pacific needs to come to the table.”
Calling the relationship between the county and the railroad very “one-sided,” Perez said Union Pacific has shown little interest in public safety issues in the past and less interest in responding to inquiries from local officials.
“That’s very scary,” he said. “I want them to be more responsive.”
Connie English, a representative from the United Transportation Union and the Bexar County Rail Authority, visited the site and said the derailments should not reflect on the quality of railroad employees.
“We’re trying to do our jobs as safely as we can,” he said. “Our people are good employees.”
Crews were busy through the afternoon and evening replacing 950 feet of railroad to open the line by midnight, Davis said.