(The following article by Bill Donovan was posted on the Gallup Independent website on October 5.)
GALLUP, N.M. — A second derailment of railroad cars at the Allison Crossing area in two weeks has officials for the city fire department concerned about the safety of the tracks in that area.
Gallup Fire Commander Philip Lopez, who was acting fire chief Monday, said the derailment Saturday night consisted of several rail cars being turned on their sides. Fortunately, he said, the cars did not contain anything lethal.
“This occurred at the same place as the derailment two weeks ago,” Lopez said.
The derailments have become more and more common in recent months, but so far, none have posed any danger to the public. Lopez said that one of the earlier derailments caused a small fuel leak.
The fire department, he said, is now in the process of trying to find out what’s causing the derailments.
No one in the city has talked to officials of the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railroad as yet, but that’s expected to happen in the near future.
“What we want to do first is to talk to city officials and check to see what we can do about the situation,” Lopez said. “Then we plan to talk to Burlington Northern and Santa Fe.”
Lopez said fire officials feel that the situation is becoming serious.
“It’s not a situation of whether it is going to happen again, but a question of how bad will it be when it does,” he said. “We need to determine why this is happening and figure how we can prevent it from happening again.”