(The following article by Cristian Salazar was posted on the Herald News website on June 2.)
PATERSON, N.J. — Two days after a train derailed in the Fourth Ward and destroyed two small businesses, railroad crews had cleared much of the debris and repaired the tracks.
By 7 a.m. Thursday, trains were operating at reduced speeds along the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway line through Paterson, according to Thomas V. O’Neil, a spokesman for the railroad.
But access by car had not been restored on Godwin Avenue and East 18th Street, where the derailment occurred, and the railroad signal lights and warning gates remained broken, according to train crews working on the site Thursday afternoon.
O’Neil said the company expected to have the signal lights and gates restored by today.
The 70-car train, loaded with construction debris headed for Binghamton, N.Y., was about to pass by the Paterson solid waste transfer station about 9:15 p.m. on Tuesday night when seven cars carrying tons of debris flew from the tracks. A car wash and part of an auto repair shop were destroyed.
There were no injuries, and both businesses were closed when the accident occurred.
Frank Malzone, the director of the city’s Office of Emergency Management, said that when he visited the site around 9:30 a.m. Thursday, much of the cleanup work had been completed.
He said officials worried early on that someone might have been buried in the debris.
“We were concerned, because when we got there, there was a bicycle about 10 feet from the collapse,” he said.
But he said cadaver-sniffing dogs brought to the scene found no bodies.
Mayor Jose “Joey” Torres said that he would lift his emergency decree — which allows him to use anything within his power to remediate the area — at around midnight Friday.
He also said the city would be seeking reimbursement from the railroad for the money spent to respond to the derailment.