(The following story by Catie O’Toole and John O’Brien appeared at Syracuse.com on July 24.)
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Two out-of-control Army freight cars carrying containers marked “flammable liquids” and “explosives” barreled down eight miles of track at more than 45 mph and collided in Watertown Monday with a CSX maintenance train carrying propane.
The propane exploded. One of the 40 or so CSX workers repairing the tracks near the crash site suffered a sprained ankle while fleeing the oncoming cars. The workers had been warned by a radio message only two minutes before, police said.
No one else was injured.
“It’s a miracle this wasn’t more serious,” Watertown Fire Chief Daniel Gaumont said.
The crash happened at 9:02 a.m. The Army cars broke loose at Fort Drum while being loaded with equipment bound for Iraq. Army officials immediately notified local authorities, who were searching for the runaway cars when the accident was reported, Gaumont said.
The Army cars hit the CSX train, knocking a crane off the tracks, demolishing two spike pullers and igniting 1,500 pounds of propane.
“Somehow they got momentum and gravity took over,” Gaumont said. “It’s downhill from Fort Drum. . . . Witnesses said the impact was quite dramatic.”
The runaway cars could have been moving at speeds up to 60 mph, said state police Sgt. Brian McDermott.
As police and firefighters rushed toward the smoke and flames, they learned that 10 more freight cars might also be on the loose. They, too, were coming from Fort Drum without engines and possibly carrying chemicals, Gaumont said.
The other freight cars never left Fort Drum, but Gaumont said he decided to evacuate everyone within a half-mile radius to err on the side of caution. About 1,000 people were temporarily evacuated.
“I couldn’t risk my people at the scene trying to deal with this situation and have six, eight, 10 more cars piling on top of them,” he said.
The CSX employees were replacing one of the steel rails behind the Doldo Bros. warehouse on Bradley Street, near the line between Watertown and the town of Pamelia.
“The work crew had taken over the tracks,” Watertown Deputy Fire Chief Milton Sayre said. The Army cars “just coasted down; that’s why they (the workers) weren’t expecting anything. It sounds strange, but that’s how accidents happen.”
Fort Drum spokesman Ben Abel said the two flatbed cars rolled away after 1st Brigade Combat Team soldiers had finished loading them with equipment bound for the port of Philadelphia and eventually Iraq. The 3,500-soldier brigade is scheduled to begin a 15-month deployment in September.
Army officials are investigating why the train cars were able to break free, Abel said.
The crash is also under investigation by state police, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Railroad Administration and CSX.
The crash forced the temporary closing of Interstate 81, between exits 46 and 48. All roads in the area were reopened by about noon.
After the crash, Watertown police and firefighters, Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies and state police went door-to-door telling residents and people working at nearby business to get out of the area.
Delia Ramos, of the Bronx, said she is visiting her son, Antoine Ramos, in Watertown. He had left to get his car washed when Kelsey Creek Apartment maintenance worker Tina Fargo knocked on the door and said there had been a train derailment.
“It was exciting,” Ramos said. “She made it sound like the whole world was coming to an end.”
David Broyles, a retired Carthage firefighter was caring for his granddaughter, Alexia, 2, when they were told about the train derailment. They left his daughter’s apartment and went to the Watertown Zoo, then to his home in Carthage before returning a few hours later.
“I’ve trained for this. I’ve been in these situations as a firefighter,” he said. “I knew all I could do was get the girl and get out of here.”
Fargo said she was scared, but “tried to keep cool” while telling others they needed to evacuate. Later, she saw photographs of the derailment.
“When I saw the pictures and saw how close it was, it made me a little more nervous to think it was that close,” she said.
Diane Robbins said she helped four elderly neighbors after they were told to evacuate the apartment complex.
“We all asked what happened and how did it happen?” Robbins said. “How did these trains move themselves? Fort Drum is only seven or eight miles from here, but still, how did that train get started?”
Rollaway rail cars aren’t uncommon, according to Paul Bodnar, a Florida expert in railroad operations. Often they’re caused by workers failing to apply hand brakes to cars that aren’t attached to the locomotive, he said. The air in the car’s air brakes will dissipate when not attached to the locomotive, and without hand brakes applied, the car will roll away on an incline, Bodnar said.
“Once it starts moving, it’s on its way,” he said. A very small portion of the wheel rides on the ball of the rail, giving the car almost no friction to hold it back, he said.
“You ever see these guys on TV who put rope in their teeth and pull those box cars?” he said. “Once they get them moving, they can pull them all over the place.”
As a backup to the hand brakes, rail workers often use chocks behind the wheels to keep the car from rolling, said Bodnar, who has consulted with the military on the use of hand brakes on its rail cars.
The rail cars weigh 30 tons unloaded, and probably weigh at least 50 tons more when they’re loaded, he said.
Bodnar said he hadn’t heard of an unattended rail car coasting for eight miles.
“That’s quite a distance,” he said. “It tells me you’ve got some pretty good grade in there to keep that thing rolling. To go eight miles, they had to be at a nice comfortable speed in some places.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report. moving at speeds up to 60 mph, said state police Sgt. Brian McDermott.
As police and firefighters rushed toward the smoke and flames, they learned that 10 more freight cars might also be on the loose. They, too, were coming from Fort Drum without engines and possibly carrying chemicals, Gaumont said.
The other freight cars never left Fort Drum, but Gaumont said he decided to evacuate everyone within a half-mile radius to err on the side of caution. About 1,000 people were temporarily evacuated.
“I couldn’t risk my people at the scene trying to deal with this situation and have six, eight, 10 more cars piling on top of them,” he said.
The CSX employeeswere replacing one of the steel rails behind the Doldo Bros. warehouse on Bradley Street, near the line between Watertown and the town of Pamelia.
“The work crew had taken over the tracks,” Watertown Deputy Fire Chief Milton Sayre said. The Army cars “just coasted down; that’s why they (the workers) weren’t expecting anything. It sounds strange, but that’s how accidents happen.”
Fort Drum spokesman Ben Abel said the two flatbed cars rolled away after 1st Brigade Combat Team soldiers had finished loading them with equipment bound for the port of Philadelphia and eventually Iraq. The 3,500-soldier brigade is scheduled to begin a 15-month deployment in September.
Army officials are investigating why the train cars were able to break free, Abel said.
The crash is also under investigation by state police, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Railroad Administration and CSX.
The crash forcedthe temporary closing of Interstate 81, between exits 46 and 48. All roads in the area were reopened by about noon.
After the crash, Watertown police and firefighters, Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies and state police went door-to-door telling residents and people working at nearby business to get out of the area.
Delia Ramos, of the Bronx, said she is visiting her son, Antoine Ramos, in Watertown. He had left to get his car washed when Kelsey Creek Apartment maintenance worker Tina Fargo knocked on the door and said there had been a train derailment.
“It was exciting,” Ramos said. “She made it sound like the whole world was coming to an end.”
David Broyles, a retired Carthage firefighter was caring for his granddaughter, Alexia, 2, when they were told about the train derailment. They left his daughter’s apartment and went to the Watertown Zoo, then to his home in Carthage before returning a few hours later.
“I’ve trained for this. I’ve been in these situations as a firefighter,” he said. “I knew all I could do was get the girl and get out of here.”
Fargo said she was scared, but “tried to keep cool” while telling others they needed to evacuate. Later, she saw photographs of the derailment.
“When I sawthe pictures and saw how close it was, it made me a little more nervous to think it was that close,” she said.
Diane Robbins said she helped four elderly neighbors after they were told to evacuate the apartment complex.
“We all asked what happened and how did it happen?” Robbins said. “How did these trains move themselves? Fort Drum is only seven or eight miles from here, but still, how did that train get started?”
Rollaway rail cars aren’t uncommon, according to Paul Bodnar, a Florida expert in railroad operations. Often they’re caused by workers failing to apply hand brakes to cars that aren’t attached to the locomotive, he said. The air in the car’s air brakes will dissipate when not attached to the locomotive, and without hand brakes applied, the car will roll on an incline, Bodnar said.
“Once it starts moving, it’s on its way,” he said. A very small portion of the wheel rides on the ball of the rail, giving the car almost no friction to hold it back, he said.
“You ever seethese guys on TV who put rope in their teeth and pull those box cars?” he said. “Once they get them moving, they can pull them all over the place.”
As a backup to the hand brakes, rail workers often use chocks behind the wheels to keep the car from rolling, said Bodnar, who has consulted with the military on the use of hand brakes on its rail cars.
The rail cars weigh 30 tons unloaded, and probably weigh at least 50 tons more when they’re loaded, he said.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)