Just in Case
Fortunately, the two passengers of the train, an engineer and a conductor, were not hurt in the accident, stated Conrail spokeswoman Andrea Just. According to Just, there was a car carrying a hazardous chemical, but it did not spill any of its cargo in the derailment. She went on to say that the train happened to be on the same tracks used by Amtrak for its passenger trains.Delays and Confused
Hundreds of initially baffled and iritated passengers on one eastbound Amtrak train from Pittsburgh and two headed westbound from New York yesterday were switched to buses because of the derailment and delayed in their journeys. Much to their shared dismay, those on a westward train to Pittsburgh ultimately arrived 3 1/2 hours later than the scheduled time.Damage Control
The train's 90 front cars did not derail and were moved out of the area, said Just. Conrail rerouted its trains through Buffalo, New York. Recall that a week ago, on July 1st, twenty-seven cars derailed a sparked a nine-hour fire. Six cars of the chemical-bearing train plummeted into the river near the Harrison-Freeport border. Reportedly, there were no injuries and no hazardous chemicals were released. Although Conrail blames this particular derailment on overheated tracks, the causes of the current Spruce Creek derailment are unknown at the time of this writing. It is often said that bad things happen in threes. One can only hope that these train car derailments do not end up following that pattern.Visit the OnTV Bulletin Archive.
