link

Crashes into a home.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), January 30, 2000

Answers

Hi Rachel, there was also a derailment in PA:

Amtrak train derails Sunday, January 30, 2000

ASSOCIATED PRESS

MILL RUN, Pa. - Four cars of a Chicago-bound Amtrak train derailed in southwest Pennsylvania last night, emergency officials said.

No injuries were reported among the Capitol Unlimiteds 139 passengers and crew.

The derailment occurred at about 11 p.m. in Springfield Township in Fayette County, about 44 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. The train was outbound from Washington.

)2000 THE PLAIN DEALER. Used with permission.

http://www.cleveland.com/news/pdnews/metro/w30amtra.ssf in Pennsylvania

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), January 30, 2000.

Yesterday's Altamont Press Newsline had a story about a grade crossing collision in Southern California. Not that the accident had Y2K problems as its cause, but that the truck which was hit by the Metrolink train was hauling a *petroleum condensor* to an oil refinery near Los Angeles.

The condensor was destroyed, the locomotive seriously damaged, but the locomotive engineer was able to save herself by hitting the floor just before impact. Still, the petroleum condensor was totally destroyed.

Equipment such as this is a long lead time item, often years of lead time. I hope that the refinery isn't shut down waiting for that item. And if it is still operating I hope it can make it until another one can be built and shipped to them.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), January 30, 2000.

Another article on the Bloomington accident. A boy in the house that was hit was killed.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), January 30, 2000.

So SAD....so aren't we having an unusual number of derailments?

[posted for education and research purposes]

Boy killed, mother injured when coal train plows into home January 31, 2000 Web posted at: 11:01 AM EST (1601 GMT)

BLOOMINGTON, Maryland (AP) -- A car on a derailed coal train plowed into a family home near the Maryland-West Virginia border, killing a 15-year-old boy inside and seriously injuring his mother.

Hundreds of rescuers used dogs to search through spilled coal, rubble and gathering snow before finding the body of Eddie Lee Rogers, 15, in the remnants of the living room about 12 hours after the Sunday morning crash, state police said.

Libby A. Holstein, 35, the boy's mother, was in serious condition late Sunday after being rescued. Her daughter and two others in the home were not seriously hurt, nor were the train's three crew members, officials said.

The accident in this small Potomac River town about 130 miles west of Baltimore derailed 76 of 80 CSX coal cars, each saddled with 120 tons, said Gary Wollenhaupt, a spokesman for the rail line. The cause had not been determined.

The family's two-story home was pelted with cargo and debris, and was pushed 25 feet off its foundation by the impact of the derailed car.

The train was eastbound from Grafton, West Virginia, to Cumberland on a route used primarily for coal and merchandise traffic. Wollenhaupt said it could take days to get the cars back on the track and weeks to remove the spilled coal.

The Rev. Donald Nelson, who lives less than 200 yards from the scene, said he happened to be looking out a window when he heard the screech of metal on metal.

"It was a tremendous noise -- loud, very loud," he said.

There was an initial gas leak at the scene and gas was turned off to about 100 homes in the area. American Red Cross officials arranged temporary housing at Westmar Middle School.

-- tt (cuddluppy@aol.com), January 31, 2000.