(The following story by Tony Kennedy appeared on the Minneapolis Star Tribune website on August 22, 2010.)
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — The Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks in Wayzata were out of alignment in late June, causing a coal train to derail and a steel rail to break through a building’s wall and into the desk of an office worker who had walked away for a minute.
No one was injured in the accident at 9:25 a.m. June 30 in the heart of Wayzata’s lakeside business and entertainment district, but tons of coal were dumped and repairs are still being made to damaged property.
Office worker Annette Call said at the time that she probably would have died if she had been at her desk when a steel rail ripped through the wall to her office. She happened to be away from her seat, talking to a co-worker.
Three of the 123 rail cars derailed and 14 more overturned on the tracks. The train was moving from a side track onto the main line when it ran off the rails.
According to a BNSF letter to Wayzata Mayor Ken Willcox, the railroad’s completed investigation determined the primary cause to be “heat-related irregular track alignment.” The Aug. 3 letter from Richard L. Ebel, general manager of BNSF’s Twin Cities Division, did not elaborate.
Willcox said the city has invited Ebel to give a full explanation of the accident to the City Council. He said the meeting has not yet been set, but believes that BNSF will cooperate.
Not only does the City Council want to fully understand what happened, but it also wants to know what BNSF is doing to prevent another derailment, Willcox said.
“We can’t have the people’s safety at risk,” the mayor said.
On Saturday, BNSF spokeswoman Amy McBeth said, “We have been communicating with Wayzata officials and will continue to do so.”
She said the railroad has “rehabbed” its track at the site of the accident and continues to conduct regular track inspections as it does throughout its system.
Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) spokesman Warren Flatau said BNSF’s report on the accident should be published in FRA’s public accident database within the next three to four weeks. He said the agency may accept the railroad’s report without conducting its own investigation.
Flatau said thermal expansion and contraction of steel rails is a common cause of derailments. Often termed “sun kink,” heat-related misalignments can develop on the best-laid track, Flatau said.
According to the Twin Cities office of the National Weather Service, air temperatures in the days leading up to the derailment were only mildly above average. The high temperature reading on June 30 was 79. The highs were 74 and 75 on the two previous days.
Asked whether heat could have been a factor even with such relatively mild temperatures, McBeth said in an e-mail, “Change in temperatures can impact the rail. Rail heats and cools all the time depending on temperature, usage, and other track and ground conditions. These conditions can combine and cause the rail to move and cause the track to buckle.”
Willcox said the city is not conducting its own investigation of the accident.
The derailment also chewed up city sidewalk, fencing and road surfaces. As repairs have been made, the city has submitted invoices to BNSF for payment, Mayor Willcox said.
BNSF said in its letter to Willcox that railroad officials also are cooperating with affected local businesses to handle claims and to repair and restore landscaping.