(The following article by Erika Ray was posted on the Toledo Blade website on October 22.)
TOLEDO, Ohio — A 40-car eastbound train en route to Morrisville, Pa., was on the same track as a 56-car westbound train headed for Chicago when they collided about 2:45 p.m., said Rudy Husband, public relations director for Norfolk Southern.
While the front ends of the locomotives seemed only to be touching with no apparent damage, some of the rail cars behind each of them either derailed or sustained extensive damage.
Mr. Husband said no hazardous materials were involved in the accident, which occurred near Main and Cherry streets in the center of the village.
That’s near what is known as an interlocking, a point controlled by a train dispatcher at which trains are able to change from one track to another.
Barbara Traver, 54, of Michelle Drive, a few blocks from the tracks, said she knew an accident occurred when she heard a sound she wasn’t used to hearing.
“I knew there was a train derailment when I heard a loud boom and my house shook,” she said. “When you live around the trains long enough, you get to know their noises.”
Lake Township police and firefighters said the conductor and engineer on one of the trains jumped off when they saw a collision was imminent.
It was unclear which train they jumped from and whether it was moving slowly or was stopped.
The conductor, whose name was not being released last night, was taken to St. Charles Mercy Hospital for treatment of minor injuries, Mr. Husband said.
The trains blocked traffic on at least six thoroughfares from Bradner Road in Wood County to Billman Road in Ottawa County, Lake Township police Chief Mark Hummer said.
Mr. Husband said Norfolk Southern is investigating how the trains ended up on the same tracks, how fast they were traveling, and how many cars derailed. “We’re still in the process of pulling all that together,” he said.
The National Transportation Safety Board also is investigating, township police said. The NTSB typically issues a report on such accidents in six to nine months.
Likely subjects of their inquiry, given the circumstances, would include whether signals and switches functioned properly and, if they did, why one or the other of the train crews did not observe the signals.
The derailment was the second in three days and the third in about a month involving a Norfolk Southern train.
A Chicago-bound train loaded with truck trailers and shipping containers derailed Wednesday while the train was changing tracks at a crossover just west of a Maumee River railroad bridge near The Andersons grain facility in South Toledo. That derailment was the second in a month involving a Norfolk Southern train changing tracks on the main line through Toledo.
On Sept. 20, nearby residents were evacuated as a precaution after the rear 10 cars of an Indiana-bound freight train derailed near the Hawley Street underpass.