Toxic Train Crash Probers Examine Switching Device
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
GRANITEVILLE, S.C. – Crews put a temporary patch yesterday on a railroad car that had been leaking toxic chlorine gas since a train wreck last week, while investigators looked into why a switching mechanism had been set to lead the train into railcars parked on a side track.
Nine people were killed and more than 250 were sickened by chlorine gas released when the tank car was damaged in the wreck of a Norfolk Southern train early Thursday. Thousands of nearby residents were to remain evacuated until Wednesday at the earliest.
A spokesman for the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, Thomas Berry, said workers would now focus on transferring the gas to a safer container and removing all the damaged railcars. About 16,000 gallons of sodium hydroxide has been safely removed from another railcar at the crash site, he said.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators have interviewed the three-man crew that had parked the cars on the side track Wednesday evening. Investigators said a switching mechanism wasn’t turned back to direct oncoming trains down the primary rail.
“We know that the switch was lined and locked for the siding,” said a NTSB spokeswoman, Debbie Hersman. “We won’t conclude anything today and we won’t speculate about the cause of the accident until we have gathered all the information.”
Ms. Hersman said it was the responsibility of the crew of the parked train to turn the switch, and that the FBI is fingerprinting the mechanism to determine who operated it. She said there was no sign of outside tampering.
Rail switches are controlled manually in Graniteville, about 10 miles from the Georgia state line. The area lacks sensors to notify approaching trains of track changes or other possible dangers, Ms. Hersman said. Part of the investigation will also focus on the recent work history of the crews involved in the crash.
More than 5,400 residents evacuated from their homes within a one-mile radius of the site were told they would not be able to return until Wednesday at the earliest, Sheriff Michael Hunt said yesterday. An overnight curfew remained in effect for people who refused to leave their homes.
