(The following article by Sacha Champion was posted on the Blytheville Courier News website on December 16.)
BLYTHEVILLE, Ark. — A Bootheel man is listed in serious condition at the Regional Medical Center (the Med) in Memphis, Tenn., following a train wreck Wednesday morning in Arkansas.
Engineer Anthony Goff of Arbyrd, Mo., is listed in serious condition while conductor Barry Rose of Steele, Mo., is listed in satisfactory condition. Both were airlifted from the scene of the accident to the Regional Medical Center in Memphis. Both are employees of Nucor-Yamato Steel in Blytheville, Ark.
According to Arkansas State Trooper Dale Cook, at approximately 7:20 a.m. an 18-wheel dump truck traveling east was attempting to cross train tracks on Arkansas Highway 18.
The driver told officers that bright sunlight obscured the flashing lights of the crossing from his view. The truck then pulled into the path of a Nucor-Yamato Steel locomotive.
“The sun at that time of morning is very bright,” said Cook. “When he pulled onto the tracks, the locomotive, without train cars, struck the right rear of the dump truck’s trailer.”
Also responding to the scene was Mike Godsey, co-captain of the Blytheville Emergency Squad.
“When the train struck the truck, the engineer (Goff), who was operating the train from a platform outside the cab of the engine, was thrown 35 feet through the air before hitting the ground,” Godsey said.
According to reports, Rose was also on a platform outside of the engine during impact.
The impact then cause the bed of the truck, carrying steel slag, to overturn on a car traveling westbound that had stopped at the railroad crossing. The slag then dumped onto the vehicle, burying the driver, Cordell Wells of Blytheville, up to his neck in slag.
Wells was transported by EMS to Great River Medical Center in Blytheville once the slag had been removed with a crane.
Nucor-Yamato Steel produces carbon steel sheet in hot rolled, cold rolled, pickled, floor plate, and galvanized coils in Mississippi County, Ark.