Freight train collides with truck hauling wind turbine section: 2 killed, 3 injured
Credit: By JAMIE STENGLE and JOSH FUNK · December 19, 2024 · apnews.com ~~
Two Union Pacific employees were killed and three people were injured when a freight train collided with a tractor-trailer and derailed in a small West Texas city, authorities said Thursday.
The train derailed around 5 p.m. Wednesday in Pecos after the collision at a railway crossing, authorities said. Union Pacific, based in Omaha, Nebraska, said Thursday that two employees had been killed. Pecos Police Chief Lisa Tarango said the other injuries were minor.
Although hazardous materials were being carried aboard the train, none were released in the derailment, city officials said. The hazardous materials included lithium ion batteries and air bags.
Leaked diesel fuel was contained, officials said.
The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to investigate. It said in a statement Thursday that it doesn’t determine or speculate about the cause during the on-scene phase of the investigation.
Ronald Lee, emergency services chief for Reeves County, said that some of those injured were in the Chamber of Commerce building, which was damaged in the derailment. He said damage to the Chamber of Commerce was “significant enough” that officials advised against entering the building until an engineer could inspect it.
Railroad safety has been in the spotlight ever since a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, in early 2023, spilling a cocktail of toxic chemicals and catching fire. Regulators urged the industry to improve safety and members of Congress proposed a package of reforms, but railroads haven’t made many major changes to their operations and the bill has stalled.
Eddie Hall, national president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union that represents engineers, said in a statement that the derailment is “a reminder that much more needs to be done to make railroading safer.”
The derailment, he said, “should serve as a wake-up call to legislators to improve rail safety.”
Images from the site of the crash in Pecos show that the train was hauling metal shipping containers that were stacked two high.
Pecos, which has a population of about 13,000, is located about 200 miles (320 kilometers) east of El Paso.
Tarango said the cleanup was underway.
December 20, 2024
Federal officials investigating the deadly West Texas collision between at Union Pacific train and a tractor-trailer hauling a wind turbine base [?] said Friday they were trying to determine why the tractor-trailer was stopped on the tracks, leading to the crash that derailed the train and propelled the enormous wind turbine base into the air.
Two employees of Omaha, Nebraska-based Union Pacific were killed in the collision Wednesday at a railway crossing in Pecos. The National Transportation Safety Board said it hasn’t yet determined how long the tractor-trailer was on the tracks before the collision or if anyone tried to contact the railroad through the emergency number posted at the crossing.
The train was traveling at about 68 mph (109 kph) before the crew applied emergency brakes prior to impact, the NTSB said.
The collision caused the wind turbine base to fly into a nearby building, NTSB said. The Chamber of Commerce building was damaged in the collision, and a Reeves County official has said that some people in the building were injured.
The Pecos police chief has said all of the three injuries from the collision were minor.
NTSB said that a data recorder recovered from the wreckage is being transported to its lab.
[NWW note: The load from the truck doesn’t look like any wind turbine part that we are familiar with. A correspondent has suggested that it is a demethanizer tower for natural gas. The AP, however, has not amended their report, so until we are sure otherwise, so it stands.]
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