(The Muncie Star-Press posted the following story by Seth Slabaugh on its website on May 6.)
MUNCIE, Ind. — A southbound Norfolk Southern train plowed up railroad tracks and street crossings from Hoyt Avenue to 23rd Street when one car partially derailed about 3:30 p.m. Monday.
“It looks like they ran a plow down the middle of the tracks,” said Tim Hutson, director of the county ambulance service. “There is a whole heck of a lot of damage.”
Mayor Dan Canan used a shovel to help clear debris from the Memorial Drive crossing, which reopened about 6 p.m.
“We asked them to prioritize the reopening of 12th Street [Memorial], which they did,” Canan said. “Every railroad tie as far as I can see is damaged,”
Several other crossings remained closed.
The front wheels of the sixth car from the rear of an 85-car train derailed, according to Bill Gosnell, director of Delaware County Emergency Management, and David LePoris, assistant director. The partially derailed car was a grain car, they said.
The only comment from Norfolk Southern on Monday came from Rudy Husband of Philadelphia, who said one of the company’s trains dragged a partially derailed car through Muncie.
It appeared that the partial derailment began on a curve in the railroad tracks near Hoyt. Damage to ties began in that area, and rocks and broken asphalt were scattered around the Hoyt crossing.
Residents who live along Eighth Street close to the railroad tracks heard loud noises, smelled smoke and saw railroad ties, asphalt, concrete, and rubber being ripped up.
According to Earl and Denise Wilson and their neighbor Arnold Lee, the train stopped suddenly, then took off again.
“I don’t know why that boy kept going,” Lee said. “When he took off, you could tell something was wrong.”
The train stopped in the vicinity of Crestview Golf Course, blocking 23rd Street.