(The following article by Lee Davidson and Susan Daker was posted on the Mobile Register website on August 20.)
MOBILE, Ala. — A CSX freight train carrying coal derailed Thursday in north Mobile County, sending about 14 cars into a bayou and piling up eight more cars on land, officials said.
No one was injured; the two engineers exited the 98-car train safely, said CSX spokesman Gary Sease based in Jacksonville, Fla.
Sease did not have any information about what caused the derailment, which happened about 4:30 p.m. By late Thursday rail traffic was expected to be tied up at least until this morning, Sease said. By first light today, Sease said it would be clearer how long traffic would be delayed.
“We don’t know the difficulty in recovering the cars,” Sease said about an hour after the accident. “That’ll be a coordinated effort with the authorities on site. We’ve got people very skilled at doing this.”
Cars toppled from the railroad embankment into a narrow body of water identified on some county maps as Catfish Bayou, between the Bayou Sara and Bayou Canot bridges. Bayou Canot, about a mile north of the accident scene, is the site of the deadliest wreck in Amtrak history — the 1993 crash of the Sunset Limited that killed 47 people.
Nearly 4 hours after the crash, Sease said that it would take until at least midnight to have all the equipment in place so crews could begin removing cars. The remote location can be easily reached only by rail or boat. Cranes were moving in on rail and crews would be working through the night to clear the track, Sease said.
Three locomotives were pulling the coal-laden train south from Montgomery to Mobile. It was unclear whether the final destination was the McDuffie Island Coal Terminal, the Alabama State Port Authority’s coal handling facility and one of the country’s largest.
Port Authority spokeswoman Judy Adams was unable to assess the extent of traffic tie-ups.
In the first 24 hours after the crash, investigators will gather evidence on how the crash occurred, Sease said. Investigators will examine the mechanics of the train, the track and the operation practices of the crew to see what went wrong, Sease said.
It will take several days before the cause can be determined, he said.
The environmental impact of the coal spill into the water was not immediately clear. When coal is burned or broken down by solvents, it does release a number of highly toxic chemicals. However, scientists agree that coal does not rapidly dissolve in water and thus is not likely to release its toxic compounds in a short period of time. If the coal is not cleaned up, some studies indicate that it could eventually degrade in sunlight and water and release a variety of damaging chemicals.
For many people living in the Mobile area, the derailment of the coal train will bring back memories of the Sept. 22, 1993, crash of the Sunset Limited.
A tugboat pushing six barges and operating in darkness and fog ran into the railroad bridge pilings at 2:45 a.m., knocking the rails out of alignment. Eight minutes later the Sunset Limited, carrying 220 people, derailed on the bridge at about 70 mph.
The engines exploded and caught fire, along with the baggage car. The first engine plunged into the opposing embankment and was buried in 40 feet of mud. The other two engines fell into the murky bayou.
Two of the six passenger cars fell into the water after them. In the end, 42 passengers and five crew members were killed, and 103 passengers were injured.