(The following story by Rebecca Neal appeared on the Indianapolis Star website on January 9.)
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Sunday’s train derailment on Indianapolis’ Far Westside emphasizes the possibility of accidents in or near the Avon Big Four Yard.
Five of Avon’s schools — Avon Intermediate East and West, Avon Middle School, and White Oak and Maple elementaries — are near the tracks. Superintendent Tim Ogle said the district has an emergency plan ready in case of a similar derailment in Avon.
“Having them near the schools is unnerving,” he said.
The crash occurred about 3:30 a.m. Sunday when a train headed from Buffalo, N.Y., toward the CSX’s Big Four Yard in Avon collided with runaway cars that had been released accidentally. A locomotive engineer and a conductor were injured.
Of the approximately 112 released cars, 35 derailed. The 100-car Buffalo train’s cargo included vinyl styrene, but none of its cars derailed. State officials now estimate 69,700 gallons of soybean oil, 21,000 gallons of lube oil, 25,000 gallons of diesel fuel and 2,000 to 3,000 gallons of liquid fertilizer leaked into soil, a drainage ditch and a small creek.
Ogle said the school district practiced a mass evacuation of all schools in October, putting students on buses and planning routes to get them around town should an accident close the railroad crossing on heavily traveled Ind. 267.
“The track runs through the center of our district, and we’re always concerned about safety and the what-ifs of transportation and chemical concerns,” he said. “You can never guarantee it won’t happen, so you have to give it careful consideration.”
The accident has forced closures of both Girls School Road and the Wayne Branch Library. Officials aren’t sure when Girls School Road between Rockville Road and Morris Street will reopen.
Library spokesman Jon Barnes said the library may reopen today or Thursday. Neither the library nor the property was damaged, but the parking lot is being used as a staging area for cleanup workers.
Wayne Township Fire Capt. Troy Wymer said the accident reinforced the incident management training that his and other emergency departments in Marion County were taught. The National Incident Management System teaches unified command in which all agencies meet at a command force and decisions are made jointly.
“That process really worked well on Sunday,” Wymer said.
As is standard practice after a major accident, an analysis of how the emergency was handled will be completed this week, he said.
Wymer said local officials have stepped away from the cleanup and the investigation. He said CSX and Indiana Department of Environmental Management are handling cleanup, and CSX and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate how it happened. Local officials would have become involved in the investigation only if the accident would have involved a car.