Train derails; bridge out at Marietta

[Anonymous]

The latest word is that there was no defect with the railroad bridge, although the derailment collapsed the bridge onto the highway.

[Anonymous]

Special report:CSX train wreck: Railroad offers few answers


By Justin McIntosh, [e-mail]




MITCH CASEY The Marietta Times

Ted Barth of Marietta looks over twisted rails and damaged cars Monday morning in the wake of a train derailment at the Virginia Street overpass overnight. Eight cars — all carrying coal — jumped the track.
An inspection five months ago on the Marietta railroad bridge that collapsed early Monday sending coal cars tumbling onto Virginia Street showed no problems with the bridge, said an official with CSX.

The lack of problems with the bridge from yearly inspections is clouding the investigation into why the bridge failed as a train loaded with coal passed on it. Few answers as to why it happened were available from the company on Monday.

The company is investigating the wreck, but said it was too soon to determine a cause. No one was hurt in the crash. The track, operating procedures and train will all have to be inspected before a cause can be determined, which could take a few weeks, CSX officials said

Meanwhile, work on cleaning up Virginia Street, which runs underneath the bridge and was closed to traffic Monday, proceeded rapidly, with traffic expected to return today, said Kim Skorniak, CSX spokeswoman. Also, a temporary bridge for rail traffic is expected to be built within a week or two.

The main question facing CSX, and possibly state and federal railroad officials, who may all investigate the wreck, is whether the train jumped off the tracks, causing the bridge to collapse, or whether the train was derailed because the bridge collapsed.

Yearly inspections, the last of which occurred on July 6, have not shown any reason to suspect the bridge was dangerous, Skorniak said, but records on railroad accidents from the Federal Railroad Administration, an agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation, indicate rail car derailments are not at all uncommon.

According to the records, more than 4,300 derailments have occurred in Ohio since 1975, while there have been 28 derailments in Washington County during that same time period. In the last 12 years, CSX has had 365 derailments in Ohio.

Steve Kulm, spokesman with the railroad administration, said records show a significant number of derailments because they can be as minor as one rail coming off the track or as severe as the loss of life. Prior to Monday’s wreck, the costliest derailment in the county caused just under $30,000 in damage.

“Derailments can be caused by a variety of things, like a collision between trains and, in some cases, speeding trains taking a curve too fast,” Kulm said. “I’ve even heard, a number of years ago, there was a standing derailment where the train was not moving, just sitting there, and the tracks gave way under the weight.”

Since most railroad companies are privately owned, inspections on rail bridges, tracks and equipment are typically left up to their owners, Kulm said. It also means local law enforcement authorities likely will not be performing an investigation into the accident, though state and federal railroad officials may begin their own examination of what led to the wreck.

The railroad administration’s reports are generated from reports sent to the administration by the railroad companies. Kulm said the railroad administration uses the reports for audits to check on whether the companies are performing their inspections correctly.

“If there’s a derailment involved in this case, we’ll see if there’s a derailment,” Kulm said. There are some guidelines out there the railroad administration will use to determine the cause, Kulm added.

Some area citizens, however, are questioning if relying on inspections by the railroad company is reliable.

Bill VanWey, 66, of 701 Virginia St., Marietta, has lived next to the Virginia Street bridge his entire life and said he always trusted engineers to determine if the bridge was stable, but he was not surprised it fell since the bridge was 70 years old.

“That bridge has been here all my life,” VanWey said. “I never thought about it holding up. They (railroad companies) ought to have known whether it would hold up.”

Others are thankful that the accident did not cause injury to the anyone in the neighborhood or drivers underneath the bridge.

“This could have involved some really toxic chemicals. ... This is a city of bridges. I feel they should inspect the bridges more often. There is no reason for this to occur,” said Randall Kidder, 51, of 313 Ingleside Ave., Marietta.

Local inspections are not done on the bridge, mostly because it’s the responsibility of the owner of the rail bridge and tracks. But state law requires the Washington County engineer’s office to visually inspect the rail bridge for potential hazards to passing motorists, like falling pieces of equipment.

Washington County Engineer Bob Badger said the inspections haven’t been done and even if they were it’s doubtful they would have prevented the accident because the surveys were not for structural issues.

Badger said he was not even aware his office was supposed to be inspecting railroad bridges for potential hazards to traffic until he looked it up after hearing of the derailment.

“In all the years I’ve been here, and I did two years with the county in ‘79 and ‘80, they weren’t being inspected,” Badger said.

The stretch of Virginia Street where collapsed bridge fell is a county road just outside the city limits. Badger said the roadway was damaged, and that would need to be repaired at CSX’s expense before it would be re-opened despite what the railroad has reported.

The accident occurred when eight of the 90 CSX rail cars toppled over the rail bridge above a section of Virginia Street near Ohio 7 around 2 a.m., Monday. No one was injured, but the bridge did collapse and coal from the rail cars spilled out onto the street; traffic was rerouted around the scene of the accident. The coal-filled rail cars were making a delivery to AEP’s Muskingum River Plant near Beverly.

Normally, one train travels along the bridge in each direction daily, Skorniak said. In addition to making deliveries to AEP, CSX also makes some deliveries to the Globe Metallurgical plant near the AEP plant. Officials with Globe were unable to say Monday how the train wreck will impact their business, though an AEP spokesperson said the company has enough coal in stock to last until a temporary bridge is built.

“(CSX) would be responsible for any losses we had,” said Melissa McHenry, AEP spokeswoman.

Skorniak said most of the spilled coal was salvageable, though she did not know how much was spilled onto the roadway. Each of the 90 rail cars carried about 100 to 110 tons of coal.

Kevin Pierson contributed.

[Anonymous]

Train derails; bridge out at Marietta


By Justin McIntosh, [e-mail]

Eight CSX rail cars filled with coal derailed from their tracks near Ohio 7 outside Marietta early this morning, sending several of them crashing down from the Virginia Street train bridge which also collapsed onto the roadway below.

No one was reported injured in the incident that occurred around 2 a.m. The train cars contained only coal, so there was no threat of spilled chemicals or other hazardous materials. As a precaution, prior to moving any of the crashed train cars, CSX employees requested representatives from Dominion East Ohio come to the scene to check on a gas supply line beneath some of the wreckage, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

CSX officials on the scene and at the Market Street station would not comment this morning. No other CSX officials were available for comment at press time. The CSX line, which runs through Marietta’s Harmar neighborhood, is a main supplier of coal for the American Electric Power-Muskingum power plant at Beverly.

Local law enforcement officials were unsure about how the wreck occurred.

The accident actually occurred outside the city limits of Marietta. Two area volunteer fire departments, in addition to Marietta, were among the first to respond to the accident. The Ohio Department of Transportation and Ohio State Highway Patrol also responded to secure the area.

Jerry Ullman, assistant fire chief with the Oak Grove Volunteer Fire Department, said he got the initial call around 2:30 a.m. and rushed to the scene not knowing what to expect. Upon arrival, Ullman said he was surprised to find the cars derailed and bridge collapsed, not to mention the coal spilled.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Ullman said. “I don’t think anybody in Marietta has seen anything like this before, this magnitude.”

With the site secured a few hours after Ullman arrived on scene, crews remained on the scene as daylight arrived. An orange fire hose, never used, remained uncurled as a precaution, and yellow caution tape blocked off the accident site. Four firefighters

sat along a guardrail talking, waiting for breakfast from McDonald’s to be delivered and sipping coffee.

Citizens of the Harmar area have been concerned for some time about the potential for a train derailment.

Longtime Harmar resident *** Wendelken, 71, of 697 Virginia St., said he can’t remember any previous derailments in the area. He said he was not surprised the train bridge collapsed.

“Let’s face it, that type of traffic is put on that bridge all at once and it wasn’t intended to hold that type of traffic,” Wendelken said, estimating the train bridge is at least 65 or 70 years old.

Though he lives only a couple of blocks from the accident and found the news intriguing, Dean Fritsche 66, of 403 Virginia St., had yet to see the derailment with his own eyes as of 5:30 a.m. Fritsche said he’d just as soon wait for the pictures to come out in the paper as the wreck will not personally affect him so he’d rather keep his distance.

Fritsche suspects the accident won’t cause any inconveniences for him, though others may be affected.

“Traffic’s real heavy in the mornings and the evenings,” Fritsche said, coffee in hand.

Stephanie Filson, spokeswoman with the Ohio Department of Transportation District 10 office in Marietta, said about 12,000 people travel along Ohio 7 every day, which results in some heavy spillover onto Virginia Street by people looking for an escape from the congestion. The last available traffic count for the Ohio 7 northbound ramp to Virginia Street estimated 1,730 vehicles a day, though Filson believes the number is slightly higher now.



Roads closed by train wreck

Ohio 550 exit ramp to Virginia Street.

Ohio 7 northbound ramp to Virginia Street.

Travelers who normally travel Virginia Street are urged to use the Washington Street bridge or Market Street to get into and out of Marietta.

Source: Ohio Highway Patrol.
http://www.mariettatimes.com/news/story/new21_1219200583848.asp