(The Observer-Dispatch posted the following article by Tim Blydenburgh on its website on April 14.)
UTICA, N.Y. — A Little Falls couple is suing CSX Transportation, claiming a freight train derailment last year left syringes, needles and pills scattered along their small farm.
Donald Jr. and Monica Aney also say that the railroad company did a poor job cleaning up the mess and left the farm looking like “an airport landing field.”
CSX Transportation officials could not be reached for comment despite several calls over the last two weeks to its Philadelphia offices.
The Aneys, represented by Herkimer attorney George F. Aney, a cousin, say the derailment in the early morning of Jan. 10, 2002, led to the “ruination of several acres” of cropland on their modest farm just east of the city of Little Falls.
George Aney said to their knowledge the syringes and needles were empty.
After CSX crews cleared the land, a syringe was found in a tractor tire and some medicine couldn’t be retrieved, leaving the land contaminated, their suit said.
According to a news report at the time, the train was running between Worcester, Mass., and Syracuse.
The cleanup crew left trenches and chunks of metal, making use of the land impossible, said the suit, filed a month ago in state Supreme Court in Herkimer County.
The Aneys said they lost crops that year and expect three more years of ruin.
They seek $200,000 in damages.