(The following story by Rocco LaDuca appeared on the Observer-Dispatch website on May 17, 2010.)
WHITESTOWN, N.Y. — The fuel tank of an Amtrak passenger train was ruptured Sunday afternoon by a mechanical arm that had been extended too far from a nearby CSX rail maintenance train, CSX Corp. officials said Monday afternoon.
The over-extended arm, which was used to lay down rail links for further installation, somehow scraped the undercarriage of the passing Amtrak locomotive and caused nearly 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel to spill out about 12:10 p.m. Sunday, officials said.
The CSX maintenance train was not moving at the time, and the nearby CSX crew was not laying rail at that exact moment, despite having the arm extended, Sease said.
“The extension arm should not have obstructed the path of the Amtrak train,” said Gary Sease, a spokesman for CSX Corp. “We have an investigation and safety review underway to understand what happened and why, so it can be prevented in the future.”
Sease then added, “We express our apologies for the inconvenience of the passengers on that Amtrak train and the passengers that were delayed on any other Amtrak trains as a result of that incident.”
While 900 gallons of fuel did empty from the tank, about 300 gallons of it were immediately captured by fire crews before ever touching the ground, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
The fuel appeared to have only seeped into the track bed and not yet spread to nearby water sources, DEC spokesman Steve Litwhiler said. But as a precautionary measure, oil absorbent booms have been set up to prevent any fuel from contaminating the Mohawk River or streams, he said.
On Tuesday, DEC employees will be on scene while contractors hired by Amtrak conduct a sub-surface investigation to examine the extent of the spill, Litwhiler said.
“This will tell us how much fuel is down there in the rail bed and we’ll see what engineering can be done to clean it up,” Litwhiler said. “It’s going to take more than a few days to get a handle this.”
Also, Amtrak train equipment currently is being analyzed to determine how fast the Amtrak train was going at the time, but the speed is estimated to likely be around the 79 mph speed limit in that area of tracks, officials said.