(The following article by Lauren Stanforth was posted on the Rochester Democrat-Chronicle website on February 8.)
GATES, N.Y. — Seven cars of a CSX freight train derailed just west of Interstate 390 Saturday afternoon, the second incident in five days involving a CSX train in the Rochester area.
Railroad spokesman Dan Murphy said a mechanical malfunction involving one of the cars was being investigated as the possible cause of the derailment, which resulted in no injuries and no hazardous spills.
CSX had another derailment Saturday, near Elkton, Md., where 35 cars went off the tracks and two tanker cars leaked a total of 250 gallons of phosphoric acid. About 50 people were evacuated, Murphy said.
On Tuesday, warning gates malfunctioned at a Henrietta crossing where an elderly couple was killed when their car was struck by a CSX train.
Murphy said the incidents were unrelated. “I don’t believe the public should be concerned about the safety of the railroad,” he said.
The CSX train in Gates was eastbound from Indianapolis to Albany when the derailment occurred about 4:50 p.m. Two or three cars spilled what Gates Fire Chief David Richards called plastic pellets, which he said aren’t hazardous.
The derailment also resulted in one or two cars tipping slightly at the east end of the railroad bridge over I-390. But Richards said the cars were stable and posed no threat to expressway motorists.
“With trains … these things happen,” Gates Police Chief Tom Roche said. He added, however, that “I think there will be more concerns in the community about the equipment that CSX has and how it’s being maintained.”
Meanwhile, an investigation is continuing into why the warning gates did not go down at the South Winton Road crash site in Henrietta.
Funeral services were held Saturday for the victims of that accident, John and Jean O’Connor of Henrietta.