(The following article by Jill Gosche was posted on the Tiffin Advertiser-Tribune website on December 1.)
NORTH BALTIMORE, Ohio — A CSX train derailed, crashed into another train and injured drivers waiting at railroad tracks in downtown North Baltimore Thursday afternoon.
Gerald Perry II, North Baltimore’s police chief, said the railroad gates were active and down, and the drivers were not at fault.
“The cars were not on the tracks,” he said.
Perry said three cars were waiting on the south side of the tracks when a westbound train came off the track for an undetermined reason.
He did not know the speed of the train that had an estimated six to eight cars come off the track.
The derailed train then struck a slow-moving, eastbound train carrying coal.
Perry said flat steel from the westbound train smashed a car nearest the tracks, driven by Bob Loe, the village street superintendent.
Perry said crews used the Jaws of Life to extract Loe from his vehicle, and Loe was talking to rescue workers during the process.
Matt Swartz, another street employee, was driving the next vehicle in line, and his car was spun around near the tracks, Perry said. Swartz had been released from the hospital by 3:30 p.m. Thursday.
Perry said he did not have information about the driver of a third vehicle but crews took the crash victims to Blanchard Valley Regional Health Center in Findlay and Wood County Hospital in Bowling Green.
CSX spokeswoman Jane Covington said the crossing averages 100 trains per day.
She said train crew members were not injured in the derailment, and the railway company has not determined the cause.
“We would launch a multi-disciplined investigation,” she said. “Local authorities are part of the investigation, as well.”
Convington said Thursday night CSX expected to have one or both tracks open by daybreak today.
Willo Loe — Bob Loe’s mother — said she learned about the crash while watching television and told a real estate agent at her home she hoped the crash didn’t involve her son — a North Baltimore resident — or someone she knew.
Later, Bob’s wife, Sue, called to tell her crews had taken Bob to the hospital.
Willo Loe said she visited her son at Wood County Hospital before he was transferred to the Medical University of Ohio.
“He was doing good,” she said Thursday evening via telephone from her home in Bowling Green. “He knows what happened.”
Willo Loe said her son sustained injuries to his collarbone and shoulder and has cuts and scratches.
“He’s lucky. He’s very lucky to get out of that alive,” she said. “It just feels wonderful to think that he is (lucky) … that he’s getting out of that with his life.”
North Baltimore resident Jeff Artressia was on his way to see his mother-in-law minutes before the crash.
He said he pulled up to the tracks, spotted an eastbound coal car and crossed the intersection.
Artressia said he kept driving, but a teal-colored car behind him stopped for the train. Artressia was about half a block away when the trial derailed.
“I heard the bang,” he said.
Artressia said he returned to the railroad crossing by way of Main Street and saw “stuff all over the place.”
He said he noticed the smashed teal-colored car and people running around the scene.
“(It) scared the crap right out of me,” he said about being the last car to cross safely.
Brenda Wittenmyer — who lives around the corner from the train tracks — said she was making Beefaroni for lunch when she heard the crash.
Wittenmyer grabbed her coat and abandoned her food when the air hushed.
“I heard it, big-time,” she said. “You knew something was going on. … It sounded like somebody got hit.”