(The Associated Press circulated the following article on December 3.)
NORTH BALTIMORE, Ohio — A loose chain dragging from an empty railroad car became entangled with a switch handle on the tracks, derailing a train and injuring three people, according to a preliminary investigation.
The chain yanked on the switch handle, causing rails under the CSX Corp. train carrying steel and other items to change positions Thursday and resulting in the wreck, a report from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio said.
The wreckage tumbled onto three cars waiting at a crossing, injuring people in the automobiles.
CSX confirmed the report’s findings, spokesman Gary Sease said. The chain was a tie-down device that should have been secured on the flatbed car, he said.
The company has ordered that switch handles on its tracks be turned away from the direction of oncoming trains, Sease said.
Two of the people injured in the crash received minor injuries and were treated and released from hospitals Thursday. The third victim, village Superintendent of Streets Bob Loe, 48, was hospitalized with a broken collarbone, broken shoulder and a cut on his face, according to his mother.
The train was moving at about 47 mph, well below the 60-mph limit, when 15 railcars derailed, according to the PUCU report.
Cars jumping the tracks derailed part of a second CSX train traveling in the opposite direction on parallel tracks. The accident halted rail traffic until heavy equipment could be brought in to right the tipped cars and clear the tracks. Both rail lines reopened early Friday morning.
The report noted that the train’s crew “felt two tugs” just before the accident.
Damage to the tracks and crossing area totaled at least $500,000, the PUCO report said.
The Federal Railroad Administration’s investigation could take several months, and Sease said the company will continue to examine tracks and the train’s data recorder to identify other factors that might have contributed to the crash.
CSX, based in Jacksonville, Fla., handles 280,000 carloads of freight annually and operates more than 2,100 miles of track in Ohio. About 75 trains pass daily through North Baltimore, about 35 miles south of Toledo.