(The following article by Jennifer S. Lee and Nate Schweber was posted on the New York Times website on May 31.)
PATERSON, N.J. — A 70-car freight train derailed last night in Paterson, N.J., sending some of its cars crashing into two buildings, the authorities said.
The derailment occurred shortly before 9:30 p.m. at 12th Avenue and East 16th Street on the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway, the authorities said.
Eight cars jumped the tracks, some spilling industrial garbage onto the streets and others crashing into a building that residents said housed a barbershop and a building that contained a car wash. No injuries were reported.
Initially, the authorities said they feared that hazardous construction material had spilled, but they later found out that the hazardous materials were carried in cars that remained on the tracks.
But fearing that the crash may have caused a gas leak, the authorities evacuated about 75 families from a neighborhood near the tracks.
One resident, Clarissa Grant, 28, said she saw the train cars hit the barbershop. “It shifted and compressed,” she said. “It shook the building.”
Another woman, Tara Bugg, 31, was driving parallel to the train when she saw it derail and some of the cars hit a building.
“It sounded really funny, like it was really rusty,” Ms. Bugg said. “It went screech! Boom! And the train went into the car wash.”