(The following story by Kirk Mitchell appeared on the Denver Post website on May 14.)
DENVER — The gigantic object falling in front of Bob Small onto the bike trail was so large he thought a train bridge was crashing to the ground.
“All of a sudden, I’m almost underneath the trestle, and I heard a sound like an earthquake,” said Small, a retired telephone company executive. “Debris was flying all over. You can’t run. It’s happening too fast.”
But what Small mistook for a train trestle was the first of 15 freight cars to derail about 1 p.m. Thursday as the train crossed over the South Platte River at Fox Street near Coors Field.
Three of the cars plunged into the fast-moving river, Denver police spokeswoman Teresa Garcia said. No one was injured in the crash, she said.
After witnessing the first car fall, the 58-year-old Small saw a set of train wheels crash to the ground not more than 10 feet in front of him.
Like dominoes, Small said, other empty cars from the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. train dropped.
The concussions caused the earth to vibrate, he said.
“Large metal pieces landed and flew in all directions,” Small said. “They would have gone right through me.”
Small, who has been staying with his son at the Flour Mill Lofts, was taking his daily 3-mile walk along the bank of the river with his son’s black Labrador, Brandy.
The train was traveling about 10 mph, Small estimated.
“After it happened, we both just stared at each other,” Small said of the dog. “There was not a soul around. It was like ‘The Twilight Zone.”‘
It was one of about 60 BNSF freight trains that usually carry coal and other items through Denver every day, said BNSF’s terminal superintendent, James Perdew.
The cause of the accident is under investigation, Perdew said.
The train company does not have a damage estimate, he said.
Small and his dog searched for victims and then ran back to his son’s apartment, where he called police.
“It’s not every day that a train drops right in front of you,” Small said. “My heart is still racing.”
A second train derailed in Grand County on Thursday night, trapping two rail employees for a while, said detention officer Jason Nichols of the Sheriff’s Department.
One of the trapped men was reportedly uninjured. The other’s condition was unknown, he said.
Nichols said a rockslide in a remote area about 2 miles north of Tabernash, along the Fraser River, caused the Union Pacific coal train to derail about 9:15 p.m.