(The following story by Tonya Smith-King appeared on the Jackson Sun website on March 3.)
JACKSON, Tenn. — CSX Railroad is continuing its investigation into the cause of a train derailment Thursday night in Milan.
No one was injured in the incident, which occurred at about 10:17 p.m. at the tracks that cross U.S. 45E, also known as North and South First Street.
The Milan Fire Department responded to the incident but is no longer involved in the probe, Milan Fire Chief Paul Wallace said today.
The engineer and conductor told firefighters Thursday that something went wrong with the tracks at Double Springs Cumberland Presbyterian Church between Milan and Gibson.
“We are not ready to determine that to be the cause,” CSX spokeswoman Meg Sacks said today of a possible problem with the tracks. “We’ll take it into consideration.”
CSX investigators will look at both the tracks and the train itself, the locomotive and the rail cars, in trying to determine what happened, Sacks added.
“We also look at how the train was operating when it derailed,” she said.
Such investigations can take two days to two weeks to complete, Sacks said.