(The following article by Sara Foley was posted on the Tyler Morning Telegraph website on August 18.)
PRITCHETT, Texas — The wreckage from Tuesday’s 20-car train derailment has been cleared off the tracks, but the incident has intensified concerns that the railroad threatens safety, even though federal inspectors have said otherwise.
Examinations by officials from the U.S. Department of Transportation allowed the tracks to reopen Wednesday, but lowered the speed limit to 25 mph for the stretch of track two miles south of Gilmer until five miles north of Big Sandy, where Tuesday’s derailment and two other derailments in May occurred.
The speed limit had ranged from 25 mph to 40 mph along the path.
Greg Mandreger, Upshur County emergency management coordinator, said it could take months to completely remove the train cars and their contents from the area.
Upshur County Judge Dean Fowler, who could have ordered the tracks closed temporarily if he did so before the federal inspectors allowed its reopening, said he wasn’t pleased with the inspectors’ decision because a cause for the accident has not yet been determined.
“Personally, I’m not happy with it, but there’s little I can do,” he said. “It’s amazing to me that they can clean that track up and have trains moving back up there already.”
Fowler said that because railroads are federally regulated, he contacted U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert and U.S. Sen. John Cornan to inform them of the situation and potential dangers to Pritchett residents.
Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said the reopened track met strict federal safety guidelines and would not have passed inspection had it not.
“The judge’s concerns on safety is definitely our concern,” he said. “As far as holding off the reopening of the track for further inspection, we inspect the track all the time anyway. The main focus is trying to determine the cause.”
Fowler said a plan to replace 50,000 cross ties between Pittsburg and Big Sandy will begin in January, a year and a half before it was initially scheduled.
“I just want to do whatever is necessary to make sure people in the Pritchett area are safe,” he said. “We’ve been very lucky that we’ve had three derailments without hazardous materials. Knowing there’s some kind of problem, we can’t tolerate the potential of a derailment with tragic consequences.”