(The following story by Stacia Glenn appeared on the Daily Bulletin website on May 14.)
COLTON, Calif. — The second derailment of railroad cars in two weeks briefly forced the evacuation of 40 residents of a Colton neighborhood Monday.
Eight cars of a Union Pacific freight train left the tracks, leaving one of the cars leaning on a high-voltage power pole.
On May 2, eight cars of a 10-car Amtrak passenger train derailed in Ontario just north of L.A./Ontario International Airport. There were no injuries on the eastbound train heading for New Orleans.
In Monday’s incident in Colton, two hopper cars filled with wheat and six empty cars designed to carry lumber derailed.
“Our biggest concern was that train lying on the power pole. If something were to go bad, people could get injured,” said Tom De Bellis, spokesman for the Colton Fire Department. “We had to get the public out of there and get everything back to where it’s normal.”
The train was rounding a small bend onto Ninth Street at 10:33 a.m. when the eight cars toppled over.
Ten homes were evacuated, and the American Red Cross set up an evacuation center at the Peter S. Luque Community Center two blocks away. Two hours after the accident, no one had shown up at the center.
People were allowed to return to their homes at 2 p.m. after the power lines were deactivated.
The cause of the derailment is still under investigation, said Mark Davis, spokesman for Union Pacific.
There were no injuries or hazardous materials spilled. It will take about 10 days for railroad officials to estimate the damage.
The train had just left the Colton Yard and was on its way to an industrial business on the other side of Colton.
“It’s not a high-speed section of the track,” De Bellis said.
Most of the cars derailed on railroad property. In addition to one car leaning against the power pole, some cars lay on their sides. One car came off its wheels.
It took more than six hours to clear the wreckage. Train crews used cranes to lift the metal cars onto a flatbed.