(The following article by Todd Billiot was posted on the Lafayette Advertiser website on December 10.)
MIDLAND, La. — A four-mile section of U.S. Route 90 between Midland and Mermentau in rural Acadia Parish was still closed by Louisiana State Police Troop I late Tuesday afternoon, and authorities said they did not know when it would reopen.
On Sunday, a tractor-trailer stalled on a crossing over the railroad tracks and a Union Pacific train struck the truck, causing 13 railcars to derail.
The truck was pushed about 200 yards, leaving debris along the tracks, said Maxine Trahan, spokeswoman for the Acadia Parish Sheriff?s Office.
For all of Sunday evening and most of Monday and Tuesday, traffic on U.S. 90 at Midland was rerouted about 10 miles south along La. 91 through Morse to La. 92, and then west on La. 92, where it turns north and reaches U.S. 90 again, slightly east of Mermentau.
Seven of the derailed cars carried hazardous materials, but none of the materials leaked.
Five of the cars carried an unspecified poison, one carried a corrosive material, and one carried a combustible liquid.
Two of the cars carried rice; one carried bricks; and one carried plastic pellets. Two of the derailed cars were empty, Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said the 100-car train with two locomotives was traveling from New Orleans to Houston when the crash occurred at 3:45 p.m. Sunday.
Davis said that Union Pacific will have to replace 1,000 feet of railroad track and the cost of the cleanup is estimated to be $400,000.
The driver of the truck, whose name was not yet released, had delivered equipment to a land-based oil rig a half-mile from the railroad crossing when his truck stalled, Trahan said.
He abandoned the truck to get help and told authorities he didn?t know that a train was approaching.