(The Associated Press circulated the following on March 19.)
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Investigators are trying to pinpoint whether heavy rains contributed to a southern Illinois train derailment that injured two members of the train’s crew.
Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis says two of the train’s three locomotives and five of its 125 cars left the tracks shortly before 12:30 a.m. about 35 miles southeast of Carbondale.
Davis says the engineer sustained a broken hip and the conductor has chest injuries. Both are hospitalized.
Davis says the derailment happened near a ditch or a creek, and that the locomotives that left the tracks leaked a combined 6,500 gallons of diesel fuel and 800 gallons of oil.
Crews are working to contain and clean up that spill.
The train was traveling from Wyoming to Joppa, an Illinois town along the Ohio River.