(The King County Journal posted the following article by Wendy Giroux on its website on May 3.)
TUKWILA — A Burlington Northern Santa Fe train from Pasco rear-ended another train at the Black River switching yards early Friday morning, derailing eight empty cars.
None of the six crew members involved in the incident were injured and no hazardous materials were on the trains, but tracks on the main line were damaged, spokesman Gus Melonas said.
Because the accident blocked both the main lines, Amtrak and Sounder trains were operating on an adjacent track, and some delays were expected.
Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the accident.
“This is uncommon. We run 50-plus trains daily on those two main lines,” Melonas said.
A train that was moving goods between local industries had stopped on the main line when the Pasco train struck it at about 2:25 a.m., Melonas said.
The eight cars that jackknifed off the tracks were near the end of the three-locomotive, 68-car train. Of the 68 cars, 42 were empty; 26 others were carrying ash products and fiber board veneer, he said.
The Pasco train had five locomotives and 76 cars, 55 of which were carrying corn syrup, frozen poultry, bran, flour, shingles, corn and other goods, Melonas said. Those perishable goods were being moved on to Seattle as workers sorted out the derailed cars.
Railroad crews spent Friday rerailing cars with a mechanized maintenance crane and other equipment, and repairing the damaged tracks. The lines were expected to be open again by late Friday.