(The following article by Bill Thompson was posted on the Longview News-Journal website on August 17.)
GILMER, Texas — Upshur County Judge Dean Fowler was visibly upset as he stood alongside Texas 155 Tuesday morning and surveyed the 20-railroad car derailment, the third this year, almost in the same spot where the first two occurred.
Fowler, who has the power as county judge to shut down the Union Pacific tracks in Upshur County, has threatened to do just that until he is satisfied that the tracks on the railroad line are safe, said an official from the Texas Railroad Commission, who was expected at the wreck site Tuesday afternoon.
“After the wreck is cleared up and the tracks rebuilt, the Railroad Commission will rule on whether the tracks are safe for use. They have certified the tracks are safe twice this year. This is the third wreck in almost the same place,” Fowler said grimly.
“We will now have another meeting,” he added.
Darren Fitzgerald, a railroad official based in Gilmer, said the wrecked cars would be cleared off the track and it would be repaired and opened in 15 to 24 hours. He later revised that estimate as giant Caterpillar sideboom crawler tractors struggled to pull wrecked train cars out of the deep mud of the old lake bed where they landed. More heavy equipment continued to arrive on the land owned by Billie Johnson, whose house is near the tracks.
Becky Roberson, whose house is near one of the previous wreck sites, said, “It is very scary having three in a row. These trains carry hazardous materials, including liquid chemicals, and we don’t know what they are carrying or when. After the last wreck, we could walk along the track and pull steel spikes that hold the track fastened to the railroad ties out with our fingers. I have small children and hazardous chemicals are a very worrisome thing to me.”
Law officers were stationed alongside the heavily traveled Highway 155 to warn motorists approaching the derailment site to slow down.