(The following story by Terry L. Jones appeared on the Hattiesburg American website on September 21.)
LAUREL, Miss. — The cause of the derailment here of seven Norfolk Southern train cars Wednesday is under investigation, officials said Thursday.
But officials now have an explanation as to why Norfolk Southern failed to notify them of the derailment.
“Since this was not a situation where anyone was in danger, there was no urgency in it,” said Robin Chapman, spokesman for Norfolk Southern.
The seven-car train derailment happened about 3 p.m. Wednesday in Laurel on U.S. 11 across the street from the Coca-Cola Co. plant, authorities said.
Officials with Jones County Emergency Management said the train was not hauling hazardous materials, and the seven cars that left the railroad tracks were empty.
Because no serious injuries or fatalities were involved, Norfolk Southern officials said they were under the assumption they weren’t required to contact local authorities.
“The train master finally contacted me this afternoon,” said Don McKinnon, director of Emergency Management in Jones County.
McKinnon, who learned about the derailment from media reports three hours after it occurred, said Norfolk Southern officials were wrong about the need for notification, following the Mississippi Department of Transportation’s modification of a law.
“On the railroad, it’s not uncommon for (trains) to derail – that’s fine,” McKinnon said. “It should be up to me to say whether or not we responded to it, not them.”
Norfolk Southern spokeswoman Susan Terpay said before Wednesday’s derailment, company officials knew nothing about the new law.
“We didn’t know anything about it until today, but we will certainly adhere to it in the future,” Terpay said Thursday. “We have cleaned up the discrepancy and don’t expect it to be a problem.”
Chapman said it could take weeks before a cause of the accident is released.