(The following article by Stuart A. Hirsch was posted on the Indianapolis Star website on August 5. Cord Quakenbush is a member of BLET Division 270 in Washington, Ind.)
MARTINSVILLE, Ind. — Cord Quakenbush had nearly reached his destination Tuesday when something went wrong with the train he was driving.
“The train just suddenly went into emergency for some unknown reason,” said Quakenbush, an engineer for the Indiana Southern Railroad.
The 4,300-foot-long, 72-car train was headed for Indianapolis Power & Light Co.’s Eagle Valley generating plant near Martinsville. As it rounded a curve, eight tanker cars, each carrying about 20,000 gallons of ethyl alcohol, left the tracks.
“From the engine, I looked back and I could see there were cars derailed, and I immediately called 911,” Quakenbush said.
One punctured tanker car began spilling ethyl alcohol when it left the rails and turned over, authorities said. The other tanker cars did not spill.
Indiana Department of Environmental Management officials said Wednesday that the spill posed no environmental danger to White River, which is about 1,000 feet from the crash site.
Railroad executives and state environmental officials decided to let the tank car empty before beginning recovery operations, department spokeswoman Laura Pippenger said.
“The soil is sandy, and the spill is not traveling in the direction of the river,” Pippenger said.
The Federal Railroad Administration sent three inspectors to investigate the accident, spokesman Steven W. Kulm said Wednesday.
The accident occurred in a sparsely populated area of farm fields about one mile west of Martinsville.
Pippenger said the railroad would build a road and bring in heavy equipment to right the overturned cars and fix the rail bed.
Quakenbush and conductor Travis Pinkston were the only crew members on board. They were not injured.
Executives from the short-line railroad in Petersburg could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
The railroad operates about 175 miles of track from Indianapolis to Evansville, Quakenbush said.