Story Photos
 Photo by Greg Ebersole A Union Pacific employee climbs back up a railroad embankment Saturday morning after getting a closer look at the train engines that were derailed after colliding with a southbound Burlington Northern train near Carrolls Bluff along Interstate-5. |
Two trains collide
Sunday, November 16, 2003 9:43 AM PST
By Lisa Curdy
Printable version
E-mail this articleA Union Pacific Railroad conductor and engineer were injured Saturday when their train collided with a Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway train near Carrolls Bluff, derailing more than 20 railcars and closing two lanes of Interstate 5 for several hours.
Derailed Union Pacific cars jutted from the tracks. One careened into an I-5 guardrail, reshaping it like a twist tie. Other wayward containers carved out hunks of pavement or hung precariously from elevated train tracks.
The southbound BNSF train had been in the process of switching tracks when the wreck occurred, said John Bromley, director of public affairs at UP.
That's when the UP train, which was heading north toward the switch, collided with the first fifth of the BNSF train, Dave Watson, a senior accident investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a press briefing late Saturday.
The UP train had been travelling at about 50 mph, Bromley said.
Maximum speed in that zone is between 49 mph and 59 mph, said Gus Melonas, a spokesman for BNSF, which owns the tracks. He didn't release the BNSF train's speed.
"The UP train will be the focus of the investigation," Bromley said.
Officials from the NTSB will be on scene this week investigating the crash. Assisting them is the Federal Railroad Administration, both railroad companies, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and the United Transportation Union.
"Right now, we're madly gathering evidence," said Watson, the NTSB official. It could take nine months to a year for the investigation to complete, he said.
The crash occurred about a mile north of a roadside memorial for five BNSF and UP crew members who were killed during a grinding head-on collision nearly 10 years ago to the day.
"A lot of us who were there today were there then," Jeff Fix, a fire engine driver-operator for Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue, said Saturday afternoon. The energy released by the behemoth locomotives' collision "shotguns and pushes those cars way up ahead and behind it," he said.
"I'm amazed every time I see one," Fix said. "It's spooky."
Engineer Steven Schaben, 60, of Seattle, suffered multiple scrapes and bruises and was listed in satisfactory condition at St. John Medical Center, a nursing supervisor said Saturday evening. Conductor R.D. Calhun, 60, of Portland, was taken to Oregon Health & Science University in serious condition, because St. John is not equipped to treat spinal injuries, a St. John nursing supervisor said. His condition was not available.
Neither of the two BNSF crew members were hurt, Melonas said.
Two southbound lanes on I-5 were closed at Milepost 35 as more than 15 emergency vehicles lined up bumper-to-bumper along the shoulder just after 8 a.m.
Amtrak trains were busing passengers around the derailment. One of the two tracks is set to open by 7 a.m. today, NTSB officials said.
Overhead lights of police, railroad, fire and aid vehicles whirred in the morning drizzle as crews scrambled to the wreck that spanned more than the length of a football field.
The UP train stretching more than 6,300 feet was pulling three locomotives and 90 cars --- 60 carrying garbage and 30 empty --- as it traveled from Gillian, Ore., to Seattle on one of the company's 17 daily trips along those tracks. Its crew boarded in Portland at 1 a.m. Saturday, according to the NTSB.
In tow on the BNSF train, which was on its way from Interbay, Wash., to Roosevelt, Wash., were three locomotives and 32 containers of garbage. Eighteen cars carried dredge spoils from a Superfund site at the Duwamish River in South Seattle. Superfund is a federal program that helps target and clean up industrial waste sites.
Three of those cars spilled polluted spoils onto the tracks, but their contents aren't considered hazardous waste, said Sandy Howard, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Ecology.
An unknown amount of asbestos also was being hauled by BNSF, but it remained intact, Howard said.
In addition to ecological hazards posed by the asbestos and spoils, Ecology workers and a local contractor also are trying to contain a 6,000-gallon diesel spill that began leaking into the ground after the locomotives' fuel tanks breached, Howard said Saturday.
More than 25 people from Cowlitz 2, Cowlitz 5 and Longview Fire departments responded to rescue the trapped conductor and engineer.
Both men were inside the lead UP engine that rolled off the tracks and down an embankment, landing nearly on its side, Fix said.
Sloshing through knee-deep mud and standing water, rescue crews hauled equipment, including generators, hydraulic tools and hoses to the wreck.
Once crews reached the overturned engine, Fix, 40, and rookie Cowlitz 2 firefighter Jason Sanders, 28, labored inside the UP compartment to free the men.
"There were some frustrating moments," Fix said. "It was challenging."
The first victim, who was standing inside the engine when firefighters arrived, was out within an hour, he said.
He told firefighters that his ribs and back were aching and that he wasn't able to hop through the train's broken windshield, Fix said. Rescue crews broke away a windshield bar and removed him on a backboard, Fix said.
It took nearly two hours to extract the second victim, who was pinned between his seat and the dash, legs bent beneath the chair.
"He was a pretty tough guy," Fix said. "He was great. He told us where to turn the power off ... he was able to help us get him out."
During the ordeal, Sanders and Fix were "encouraging him, comforting him that we were getting this," Fix said.
wouldn't cut that metal. This was a very thick steel.
"But as nasty as that was, it's cool when they're alive and actually doing pretty well."
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