Saturday, May 25, 2013

Seven injured in Missouri as trains collide, trigger highway bridge collapse

Two freight trains collided and derailed early Saturday in southeast Missouri, then triggered the collapse of a highway overpass when several rail cars struck a support pillar.



Seven people were injured, including two personnel on the trains and five individuals in cars on the overpass on Highway M near Scott City, about 120 miles south of St. Louis, NBC affiliate KSDK reported. All the injured were hospitalized and listed in fair condition.
The collision occurred before dawn at a rail intersection. 
"One train T-boned the other one and caused it to derail, and the derailed train hit a pillar which caused the overpass to collapse," Scott County Sheriff's dispatcher Clay Slipis told Reuters.
The crash, which involved BNSF Railway Co and Union Pacific trains, also ignited a fire when diesel fuel leaked from one of the train engines, Slipis said.
The crash came just over a week after a commuter train derailed in Connecticut, striking another train and injuring more than 70 people during the evening rush hour.
On Friday, a truck crash caused the collapse of a bridge in Washington state, sending two cars plunging into the Skagit River. Three people were rescued.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it had dispatched a team to investigate the train crash. 
Union Pacific said its train had been primarily carrying auto parts from Illinois to Texas. The Union Pacific locomotive and about a dozen cars derailed in the crash.
BNSF said that its train had been hauling scrap metal from salvage facilities and was heading south along the Missouri River. 


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