(The Associated Press circulated the following article on March 14.)
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. — Cleanup continued Tuesday after a train carrying new cars and pickup trucks derailed in southeast Missouri, sending six rail cars and several vehicles into the Mississippi River.
All told, one locomotive and 15 of the train’s 64 rail cars derailed in the accident at 7:40 a.m. Monday just north of Cape Girardeau, said Steve Forsberg, a spokesman for BNSF Railway Co. The train’s three crew members were not injured.
All of the rail cars were loaded with new cars and pickup trucks heading to Chicago from Birmingham, Ala., Forsberg said. Railroad officials have not yet determined how many vehicles were destroyed.
A barge was brought in to help pull the rail cars and the vehicles from the river. The track was expected to reopen by 8 a.m. Wednesday.
Southeast Missouri has seen heavy rain from storms in recent days, and Forsberg said the saturated soil apparently was to blame. The derailment happened on a 40-foot-high embankment that runs along the river.
“A section of that bank slipped enough to create a track alignment problem that caused the derailment, we believe,” Forsberg said.