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Probe into railroad accident continues
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
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A CSX train carrying ammonia and chlorine derailed near North Center Street in Newton Falls at about 6:45 a.m. Monday.
By Ed Runyan
NEWTON FALLS
Inspectors with the Federal Railroad Administration have examined the rails and conducted interviews at the scene of the March 28, 14-car Newton Falls train derailment but won’t be releasing findings for at least two months.
“They have not made a determination of the cause,” said FRA spokesman Warren Flateau.
Newton Falls police and fire officials who worked around the derailment said they didn’t know what caused the accident.
Flateau said at least two FRA inspectors/investigators were at the site Monday and probably spent one day there.
Their activities generally include interviewing the train crew, collecting physical evidence, taking photographs, interviewing witnesses and securing the “event recorder” in the train’s engine, Flateau said.
The recorder is much like an aircraft’s black box, which means it contains information about what happened to the train just before and during the derailment, he said.
The same employees who conducted the investigation primarily work as rail inspectors, Flateau said, so they must devote most of their time to that task. They will complete the investigation into the derailment in a couple of months, he said.
The westbound CSX train derailed in downtown Newton Falls near the trestle over North Center Street about 6:50 a.m., just a few blocks north of the city administration building, which houses the police and fire department.
The derailment caused a great deal of concern among firefighters and the Trumbull County HazMat team because some of the rail cars carried ammonia and chlorine, though officials later determined that none of the cars containing those chemicals had derailed.
The derailment did not lead to any injuries, though hundreds of residents living near the tracks were evacuated just after the accident as a precaution.
The only spill associated with the accident was about 200 gallons of diesel fuel that spilled from several refrigeration cars.
The FRA website contains information on railroad accidents dating back to 1992, listing the cause, name of the rail company involved and the dollar amount of loss.
In Trumbull County, there have been one or two accidents investigated every year since 1994, except for three in 2001 and three in 1996.
Since 1998, nine of 15 derailments involved CSX trains and six involved Norfolk Southern Corp.
Of those 15 derailments, the FRA determined that a track defect was responsible for 12 of them, human error was responsible for two and “other” was responsible for one.
Flateau said last week’s derailment was the first on a mainline track in Trumbull County since 2004. The derailments before that were on industrial tracks or in rail yards, Flateau said.
The amount of damage resulting from the derailments ranged from $600 for a Norfolk Southern accident in 2005 to $48,553 for a Norfolk Southern accident in 2001.
None of the accidents investigated since 1994 involved injuries or deaths.