(The following story by Jeorge Zarazua appeared on the San Antonio Express-News website on September 29.)
SAN ANTONIO — Two Union Pacific workers were injured this morning when their train smashed into a parked freight train in northern Victoria County, authorities said.
The crew members, whose names were not released, were taken to DeTar Hospital Navarro in Victoria with non-life-threatening injuries, said Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis.
Victoria Fire Chief Vance Riley said the wreck occurred at about 3:41 a.m. on a track that parallels U.S. 87 near the DeWitt County line. Riley said the Union Pacific train carrying coal was southbound when it slammed into an empty Texas-Mexican Railway freight train parked on a siding.
Neither train was carrying hazardous material.
“For unknown reasons, the Union Pacific train entered the siding track and struck the parked train head on,” Riley said.
The Union Pacific spokesman said a switch on the track “was not in the right place,” causing the coal train to leave the main track.
“That will be the focus of our investigation,” Davis said. Two engines and seven cars of the 126-car Union Pacific train derailed, along with one Tex-Mex engine. Authorities said the freight train had been securely parked and was unoccupied at the time of the crash.
Davis said some of the coal from Wyoming heading to a power plant near Port Lavaca did spill.
He said the two employees injured on the coal train were the engineer and conductor, both of whom were the only two crew members aboard the train. He said neither sustained any broken bones.
Authorities expected the railroad track to reopen this afternoon after clean-up efforts were completed.