Failure to set brakes caused train crash
Posted on Wednesday, July 9, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/230817/
A crew member of a BNSF Railway train failed to properly set brakes on a stopped train on tracks in Fulton County last month, causing 23 cars to unhook and collide with a second train, officials said Tuesday.
Eighteen of the 23 cars derailed in Mammoth Spring on June 3, sending two cars into Spring Lake, which feeds the Spring River. Police briefly shut down U. S. 63, and the derailment forced the closure of the Mammoth Spring State Park that day.
There were no serious injuries in the accident, which occurred at 3: 30 a. m. June 3 on BNSF Railway tracks that run through the state park. An engineer on the train that collided with the unhitched cars was treated for light lacerations, said Joe Faust, a spokesman for the railroad in Fort Worth.
“The brakes just didn’t work,” Fulton County Sheriff Walter Dillinger said. “The cars separated, and they started rolling.”
According to a preliminary investigation conducted by the railroad, a train bound from Memphis to Kansas City, Mo., stopped on inclined tracks between the state park and the Spring River Fish Hatchery near the Missouri line.
A member of the train’s crew failed to set brakes on the standing cars, Faust said.
Somehow, 23 cars unhooked from the train and rolled south, Faust said.
A second BNSF Railway freight train, headed for Richmond, Calif., from Birmingham, Ala., collided with the rolling cars. Faust said engineers in that train received warning of the cars and were able to slow the train before it crashed.
One of the two cars that rolled into the lake contained nitrogen fertilizer pellets. A hazardous material team from West Plains, Mo., cleaned up the spill, Mammoth Spring Police Chief Mike Davis said. A team from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality assisted, Davis said. “They cleaned it up, and there was no environmental problems,” he said. The state park closed on June 3 while crews removed cars. Cranes from St. Louis and Memphis helped lift the toppled cars, Davis said.
The park reopened the following day, but a walking trail near the tracks remained closed for several days as state park workers repaired it.
“We are still working on a final report,” Faust said. “But we know the derailment was caused by human error. It turned out that the incident was not caused by equipment failure.”
Faust said a BNSF Railway inspector will complete the investigation within a few weeks. He would not comment on if the person who failed to set the brakes was disciplined.
The June 3 derailment was the second BNSF Railway accident within a month. On May 5, 13 cars left the tracks south of Mammoth Spring at the Warm Fork bridge. Three cars derailed under the U. S. 63 railroad bridge.
The Mammoth Spring schools were evacuated as a precaution when officials feared a tanker car was carrying propane. Officials later discovered the car was empty.
There were no injuries in that accident. Faust said the cause of the May 5 derailment has yet to be determined.
On June 3, 1973, 35 years to the day before this June’s derailment, a train left the tracks at nearly the same location. One car rolled into Spring Lake, Mammoth Spring Mayor Jean Pace recalled.