(The following story by Russell Sellers appeared on The Messenger website on January 12.)
TROY, Ala. — A CSX freight train collided with a stationary CSX train Tuesday morning around 5 a.m. in the Banks community. The wreck occurred in front of the Banks Primary School.
Neither train had any hazardous materials on board and no injuries were reported.
Neither train derailed in the accident. The moving train sustained little, if any damage. The stationary train, which was unmanned, was heavily damaged.
The main question from the scene centered on a switch that may not have been set correctly. This caused the trains to end up on the same track.
“We can’t speculate about what may or may not have happened,” CSX spokesman Misty Skipper said. “After our investigators determine what happened we’ll certainly take all steps necessary to prevent a similar accident in the future. But we really can’t give a timetable for the investigation. It will be very thorough.”
In a safety advisory issued Tuesday, the Federal Railroad Administration expressed concern about other accidents caused when railroad employees didn’t return hand-operated track switches to their normal position.
“An improperly lined switch invites disaster and can be easily avoided,” said Robert Jamison, the FRA’s acting chief.
There were 23 train accidents caused by improperly aligned switches during the first nine months of 2004, of a total of 2,577 incidents, according to FRA data.
The FRA notes that most trains operate on tracks that have electronic signals that indicate when a switch is in a position to divert a train off the main track. However, the FRA also said that 40 percent of railroad tracks in the United States are in territories that do not have signals.
In accordance with the safety advisory, inspectors from the FRA will be looking into accidents that were possibly caused by manual switches being out of place.
The safety advisory also said some railroads have already changed their rules to require railroad crews to notify the dispatcher of the switch’s position.
This accident comes one month after another train accident in Pike County.
At about 3:15 a.m. on Dec. 11, nine cars of an 89-car train derailed on a couple hundred-yard stretch of track that parallels Alabama Highways 29 and 10, less than a mile outside the Highway 231 overpass. The cars were carrying limestone, pulp paper and wood.
“There has still not been a determination in the cause of that derailment,” Skipper said.
Last week, CSX had another derailment in Lowndes County.
No injuries were reported in that incident. However, hazardous materials were aboard that train, although not in the cars that derailed.