Semi smashes into freight train, derails train cars

Semi smashes into freight train, derails train cars

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Story Published: Mar 17, 2008 at 7:33 AM PDT

Story Updated: Mar 17, 2008 at 9:52 PM PDT

By KOMO Staff & News Services

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MARYSVILLE, Wash. -- A semi-truck collided with a freight train early Monday morning, knocking several cars off the tracks and ripping up iron rails.

Police said the lead locomotive crashed into the truck's trailer just before 6 a.m. on Smokey Point Boulevard near 116th Street as the truck was trying to cross the tracks.

"And then all of a sudden, you heard the bang," said Jack Barryman, who works in the area. "We came running out and sure enough there it was, there was just carnage."

The semi-truck's trailer was ripped into pieces and its load of frozen pizzas and cakes were scattered about.

The derailed train cars dug a huge rut in the ground along the tracks. Debris was spread over a large area and officials said the rails under the parts of the train snapped and are sticking high into the air.

The truck driver and the train engineer were taken to Providence Everett Medical Center with minor injuries.

BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said the train was traveling 49 mph when it hit the trailer, and had been blowing its whistle and applying the emergency brake at the time of the crash. The truck was trying to pull into a private driveway and didn't see the train coming, police said.

The section of the railroad where the crash took place does not have crossing arms; the stretch leading to the private driveway only has a stop sign.

Due the train's length, many streets in the area were blocked for hours.

Another train was brought in to move the cars that were still on the tracks, and a heavy-duty crane came in Monday afternoon to move the three locomotives and three boxcars that derailed.

Melonas said crews hope to have the train back on track by Tuesday morning, but the closure will require Amtrak passengers to be bused in the interim.




















































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