Feb. 12 update: A derailment last month involving 35 CSX train cars that spilled diesel fuel and fertilizer along a residential area did not taint nearby wells, officials said Tuesday. Read more.
Original story:
Indianapolis - A train accident overnight prompted a big clean-up on the city's west side. Now investigators are trying to determine how 112 cars were released accidentally from the CSX yard in Avon and collided with a 100-car train from Buffalo.
Several crews are at work at the accident scene in the 200 block of South Girls School Road where some 35 cars derailed and two CSX workers were injured. The crash spilled 3,500 gallons of diesel fuel and 2,000 gallons of soybean oil. Some crews are working to clean up the spills, and they must work around the crews trying to pick up the wreckage so that the tracks can be repaired.
The railroad employees' injuries were not life-threatening. CSX spokesman Gary Sease said the locomotive engineer and conductor were conscious when taken to a hospital.
Wayne Township Fire Department Captain Troy Wymer says the accident happened early Sunday morning when 112 cars were released from the CSX yard in Avon. They then headed east on the tracks and collided with the 100-car train, which was bound for Avon from Buffalo, N.Y.
CSX already faces a $350,000 fine set by the Federal Railroad Administration after 3,500 safety violations were uncovered in an investigation into a crash near Louisville a year ago as well as other crashes in 2006 and 2007.
"In that incident they did determine that it was a broken bolt which challenged the operation of that car which caused that derailment. Sometimes they're caused by mechanical operation, sometimes they're caused by track and sometimes it's a human error. Each accident is different. As we investigate it, we learn from it and try and correct those things in the future," said a CSX spokesman in a telephone interview.
Residents who can observe the train wreckage in their backyards are concerned, meanwhile, about their water quality.
"A lot of these people, they're on wells," said one resident.
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management is working on long-term damage control.
"It can have an impact on the fish in the stream or the vegetation that might be growing alongside the ditch and ultimately wildlife," said Amy Hartsock, IDEM.
Clean-up crews are hoping they'll have most of the oil and fuel removed before the rain comes and washes the spill out of their reach.
The cause of Monday morning's crash is under investigation.
