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Train Collision in Alabama
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This is the best article on it I've seen. From UTU Site. Glad to see the worst injury was a broken ankle. <br /> <br />LC <br /> <br />Trains crash in Alabama; four injured <br /> <br />LINCOLN, Ala. -- One train slammed into another on a track near Lincoln on Wednesday afternoon (Jan. 18), injuring at least four people and trapping more than 50 in their homes while firefighters battled a huge inferno, according to the Anniston Star. <br />Emergency officials urged about 500 people living within a mile of the accident to evacuate to shelters in schools, churches and a recreation center nearby after they confirmed that one of the trains carried a toxic chemical. <br /> <br />One train hit another from behind at about 4 p.m., according to Lincoln Mayor Lew Watson, on a section of track just east of the Coosa River and about a mile west of the Honda auto plant. <br /> <br />Shay Cook, spokeswoman for the Calhoun County Emergency Management Agency, said one of the trains carried sodium cyanide. The chemical is not combustible, but forms flammable gas on contact with water or damp air. It gives off irritating or toxic gases - hydrogen cyanide and oxides of nitrogen - in a fire. <br /> <br />Environmental and emergency workers were evaluating each of the wrecked cars Wednesday night. As of 10:30, it appeared no hazardous materials had been released into the air. <br /> <br />Susan Terpay, a spokeswoman for Norfolk Southern Railway, which owned both of the trains, said it appeared the car carrying the dangerous chemical was not breached. <br /> <br />Cook said three railroad workers and a local resident were injured in the crash and taken to Citizens Baptist Medical Center in Talladega. <br /> <br />Roxanne Ramsey, a hospital spokeswoman, said all four victims were in good condition. One of the railroad employees had a broken ankle, a Lincoln fire fighter said, which appeared to be the most serious injury at the scene. <br /> <br />Terpay said both trains were eastbound, headed for Atlanta. One train pulled off onto a side track to allow the other to pass, she said. But the first train didn't get all the way off the track. <br /> <br />"The second train was behind it and was supposed to go on the main line because it needed to move more quickly," Terpay said. "It appears that the first train did not clear the main line and when the second train came through, it struck the first train that was on the siding." <br /> <br />The wrecked trains blocked the escape route of about 52 residents in 30 homes along Lomar Drive. Emergency management officials ordered those residents to take shelter in their homes, closing doors and windows and turning off ventilation systems. <br /> <br />Rescue crews were able to cut through portions of a train blocking Lomar Drive several hours after the accident, according to Talladega County Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Deborah Gaither. Some residents then evacuated, but not all. <br /> <br />"I think that some chose to stay in their homes," Gaither said. <br /> <br />Residents living within a mile of the wreck were asked to evacuate. Lincoln High School, Talladega Springs Baptist Church and Lincoln Methodist Church all were used as evacuation shelters, according to Talladega County Commissioner Ed Lackey. <br /> <br />Lackey said the cleanup would probably keep workers at the scene at least through this morning. <br /> <br />"It's going to be a long night," Lackey said. <br /> <br />Emergency officials said Calhoun County was unaffected by the accident, which occurred in extreme west Talladega County. No Calhoun County residents were evacuated or asked to shelter-in-place, officials said. <br /> <br />Jerry Smith couldn't get to his 10-year-old daughter, who was staying with a babysitter in Dabbs Landing. When Smith tried to drive into the area, authorities turned him away. Smith was pacing in the parking lot of Rick's Crossroads BBQ, talking to his daughter on his cell phone. <br /> <br />"I figure if my daughter's safe there's no point in my getting arrested," Smith said, pacing and chain smoking Marlboro Lights. "I've been telling her jokes and she's been telling me jokes - knock-knock jokes. She was worried about her cat." <br /> <br />Witnesses who live near the accident site reported seeing a towering column of black smoke before the sun set. <br /> <br />Kathy Cromwell, a 54-year-old resident of Plantation Mobile Home Park within a mile of the wreck, said she saw the smoke from the front porch of her home. Then a police cruiser pulled into her neighborhood, blaring a warning from a loudspeaker to evacuate. <br /> <br />"It's got me pretty scared," said Cromwell, leaning against her car with a cigarette outside the Lincoln City Hall. <br /> <br />Firefighters described a jumbled mess of cars and car parts on fire at the scene. <br /> <br />"It was a huge fireball, a big mess of cars and stuff on fire," one firefighter said. <br /> <br />Honda spokesman Ted Pratt, whose company's plant was less than a mile from the accident site, said no vehicles from the factory were on either train. <br /> <br />"At this point we have gotten information that none of our products were involved," Pratt said. <br /> <br />Officials with Mercedes Benz, which operates a plant in Vance, near Tuscaloosa, could not confirm Wednesday night if the vehicles at the scene were theirs. <br /> <br />A Norfolk Southern worker near the accident site, general foreman Steve Collier, said the track between Atlanta and Birmingham is a busy one. <br /> <br />"It's a main line," Collier said. <br /> <br />Firefighters and sheriff's deputies blocked roads near the accident scene Wednesday night. Temperatures dropped rapidly as the sun set, leaving emergency workers standing in the cold while the trains burned less than a mile away. <br /> <br />Firefighters at the scene said they were letting the fire burn out. <br /> <br />Volunteers from Childersburg, Stemley and other areas provided backup for Lincoln Fire & Rescue crews at the scene. <br /> <br />(This item appeared Jan. 19, 2006, in the Anniston Star.) <br /> <br />
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