(The following article was posted on the Press-Enterprise website on March 10.)
MIRA LOMA, Calif. — Six Union Pacific rail cars derailed on a railroad overpass early Wednesday morning, forcing the closure of one of Mira Loma’s busiest intersections during the morning rush hour.
The rail cars were empty and there were no injuries, but according to California Highway Patrol reports, one of the cars dangled perilously from the overpass near the intersection of Van Buren Boulevard and Etiwanda Avenue.
George Johnson, Riverside County’s transportation director, said the northbound lanes of Van Buren Boulevard were closed at Bellegrave Avenue at 2:30 a.m. and reopened to traffic at about 8:30 a.m.
Traffic was detoured west on Bellegrave Avenue, north on Etiwanda Avenue and west on Mission Boulevard to the Highway 60 onramp.
Etiwanda Avenue north of Van Buren Boulevard also was shut to traffic, Johnson said.
Wednesday’s incident was the second this week in the Jurupa area involving the Union Pacific Railroad and came on the heels of Tuesday’s freight train derailment in Industry that forced the cancellation of commuter trains between Riverside and Los Angeles.
A Mira Loma man was killed Monday morning at a rail crossing at Van Buren Boulevard and Jurupa Road in the neighboring community of Pedley when traffic in front of him stopped, leaving him stranded on the tracks.
Juan Ignacio Marquez, 64, was unable to move his car out of the way in time and was hit by a train.
Union Pacific spokesman John Bromley said employees were switching rail cars early Wednesday at the Mira Loma Auto Facility, assembling a train, when the operation went awry.
“For some reason they derailed during the switching operation,” Bromley said.
An investigation is under way to determine what went wrong.
Almost 60,000 vehicles a day travel through the Van Buren Boulevard-Etiwanda Avenue intersection, according to a December traffic count.
“It’s possibly the busiest intersection in unincorporated Riverside County,” said Juan Perez, Riverside County’s deputy director of transportation.
The derailment in Industry on Tuesday forced 150 to 200 people to be evacuated from the area when a cargo of liquid used in cooking oil leaked.
Twenty-one of 48 cars of a Union Pacific train heading from Colton to Los Angeles derailed shortly before 10 a.m., fire and railroad authorities said.
Hundreds of passengers heading to the Inland area scrambled to find other ways home Tuesday, with many boarding buses after Riverside-bound trains were canceled.