(The following article by Mike Cason was posted on the Birmingham News website on January 21.)
LINCOLN, Ala. — The Norfolk Southern railroad line through Lincoln reopened Friday as crews continued cleaning up after Wednesday’s two-train crash.
Also Friday, the section of U.S. 78 from the Coosa River bridge to near the crash site reopened, while the residents of the two houses nearest the crash site were allowed to return to their homes.
Those residents represented the end of an evacuation that targeted up to 500 families, said Nelson Bates, director of Talladega County’s Emergency Management Agency.
Richard Hipskind, lead investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said there was no evidence of toxic contamination from the crash. The two carloads of sodium cyanide were not breached during the wreck.
Bates said one of two rail cars that carried sodium cyanide was damaged slightly during the cleanup, allowing a minor leak of the hazardous chemical. However, the container was resealed and there was no contamination reported.
Hipskind said investigators have interviewed the crew of one of the trains. They still are waiting to interview the other crew. Three of the crew members from the second train were injured. A Norfolk Southern official said none of the injuries was life-threatening, but no other details have been released.
The accident involved two Atlanta-bound Norfolk Southern trains. The lead train had moved onto a sidetrack just east of the Coosa River. Hipskind said crew members of that train estimated they had been stopped on the siding about 10 minutes when the crash happened about 4:20 p.m.
The second train rounded a curve and veered onto the sidetrack because the rail switch had not been realigned with the main track. The second train struck the rear of the first.
Hipskind said the rail switch was controlled from a dispatch office in Birmingham. (Previous reports said it was controlled from Atlanta.) The NTSB still has not determined why the switch was not reset.
“We have not ruled anything in or out,” he said.
Hipskind said a data recording device on the second train indicated it was traveling 53 mph at the time of impact. The speed limit at that section of track is 55 mph.
The lead train, which came from New Orleans and picked up a replacement crew in Birmingham, included two locomotives and 81 cars and was 8,277 feet long, Hipskind said. The side track on which it was parked is 8,780 feet long.
The second train, which came from Los Angeles, also picked up a replacement crew in Birmingham. It had three locomotives and 23 cars and was 4,580 feet long.
Hipskind said the train appeared longer than 23 cars because some were container cars carrying as many as five modular units.
2 evacuees sue
The legal fallout from the crash began with a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of a Talladega County couple who were evacuated from their home. The suit, filed at 9:08 p.m. Thursday in Birmingham, names Norfolk Southern Corp. as the sole defendant. Efforts to reach Norfolk Southern spokesmen were unsuccessful late Friday.
The suit was filed on behalf of Henry and Evelyn Martin. It seeks to represent a class of residents in Talladega and St. Clair counties who were evacuated and may have been exposed to toxic substances.
The suit contends Norfolk knew such an accident could occur and did nothing to prevent it.
The complaint, filed by lawyer G. Owen Waters of Lincoln, asks money damages for, among other things, property and income loss. It also asks for reimbursement of the costs of evacuation, cleanup and other expenses.
The crash caused a disruption of Amtrak’s Crescent line, which uses the same track. The passenger train ordinarily runs daily between New York and New Orleans. Amtrak’s Web site said trips won’t resume until at least Monday.