(The following article was posted on the Sacramento Bee website on February 15.)
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Eight cars from a freight train derailed and came to rest yards from a residential street, startling residents, but causing no injuries or significant damage, authorities said.
The cars from an 80-car Union Pacific train derailed and careened town at an embankment early Saturday, coming to rest near a cul-de-sac, officials said.
“It sounded like a big car crash,” nearby resident James Sargent, 18, told the San Bernardino Sun.
Union Pacific spokeswoman Zoe Richmond said sodium carbonate, a nontoxic substance used in swimming pools and as a water softener in laundry machines, spilled from two of the cars.
The cause of the derailment was under investigation, she said.
Officials with Kinder Morgan Inc., an energy company, temporarily shut down a fuel-transport pipeline it operates adjacent to the tracks as a precaution, San Bernardino fire spokesman Steve Tracy said.