(The Baton Rouge Morning Advocate posted the following story on its website on February 14.)
BATON ROUGE, La. — Five months after the Metro Council voted to ban remote-controlled locomotives in Baton Rouge, an unmanned train derailed late Wednesday on a highway overpass, damaging cars below and closing the highway for hours.
The empty chemical tank cars, owned by Kansas City Southern, derailed about 11 p.m. as they entered the rail yard at 1401 Foss St., between Memorial Stadium and the Governor’s Mansion.
No one was injured, but falling debris damaged about eight cars on Interstate 110, Baton Rouge Police spokesman Capt. Sam Miceli said.
Southbound lanes of the highway reopened about noon Thursday, and northbound lanes, about 6:15 p.m.
Miceli said the cause of the derailment is still under investigation.
On Sept. 25, the Metro Council passed a resolution banning remote-controlled trains in Baton Rouge, but the vote was not legally binding because railroads fall under federal jurisdiction.
Mayor Pro Tempore Lorri Burgess, the Metro Council representative for the downtown area of accident, sponsored the resolution banning remote-control trains.
She said Wednesday night’s derailment in her district means the city-parish should be ready to prepare evacuation plans for more derailments.
“The reality is, this has given us a look at what could possibly happen,” she said. “Can we handle an evacuation of that sort? The Kansas City Railroad transports petrochemicals up and down our rail system every day. What have they done to protect us?”
Representatives of Kansas City Southern in Shreveport and Kansas City did not respond to phone messages Thursday. Employees at the Baton Rouge office who would not give their names declined to comment.
Kansas City Southern has used the unmanned trains since April in its switching yard behind Memorial Stadium. Officials have said remote-controlled trains are only used to build trains in its switching yard, where a control tower can operate up to six locomotives.
Because the Metro Council can’t regulate rail traffic in Baton Rouge neighborhoods, Burgess said, she wants more federally mandated safety measures to protect residents from possible future derailments.
“It’s time for the federal government to pay attention to what we’re asking for,” she said. “Look at the harmful situations the railroads are possibly putting these communities in.”
Baton Rouge was the first city in the country to legislate against the use of remote-controlled railroads, and Burgess said she had been asked by council members in Pointe Coupee Parish and Arkansas about drawing up similar regulations.
“I don’t want Baton Rouge to make the stories that get told from California to New York about train wrecks,” she said. “We’re the first in doing something right. Now this should give more credibility to our resolution.”
Burgess said she doesn’t plan to ask the city to sue because the resolution was not legally binding.
(Advocate staff reporter Brett Barrouquere contributed to this report.)