Two Dead, Hundreds Treated After Aiken County (SC) Train Derailment

[DemoTex]

GRANITEVILLE, S.C. -- Aiken County officials say at least two people have died following the train wreck near Graniteville Thursday morning.

Sheriff's Lt. Michael Frank did not say whether the death occurred in the wreck or from the chemical spill that followed. He said a dusk-to-dawn curfew will be in effect in Graniteville beginning at 6 p.m.

A Norfolk Southern freight train with 42 cars struck another locomotive with two cars on the siding at a textile plant in Graniteville shortly before 3 a.m. The railroad said three of the cars on the moving train were carrying chlorine. Frank said that 13 rail-cars derailed. (More ...)

http://www.thecarolinachannel.com/news/4054481/detail.html?treets=gs&tid=2655332288813&tml=gs_4pm&tmi=gs_4pm_1_03000201062005&ts=H



It is now reported that 39 people are in critical condition from chlorine poisoning. This train wreck happened on the same stretch of track where a Norfolk-Southern freight train hit a car in November killing all five in the car. The car was racing the train to the crossing. N-S, which had a very enviable safety record until a few months ago, had another train wreck in South Carolina in late summer of 2004. That train was carrying new BMWs from the BMW factory in Greer.

[KG]

1. Aiken County ??? isn't Mike Hunt sheriff there?

[DemoTex]

2. If he isn't, he should be!

Good old Mike.

[KG]

5. he is!

http://www.aikencountysheriff.org/

[blueknight]

3. its terrible,

i retired from csx after 27 years as an engineer. they rush these new hires out too fast,and without proper rest. its really sad

[DemoTex]

4. At N-S, new hires spend a year as a freight train conductor.

They are then expected to upgrade to engineer at the company's training facility in McDonough, Georgia. There are a lot of very young engineers on the railroads now.

[idiosyncratic]

6. Who's watching the switches? Terrorists could so easily use

these trains, loaded with toxic chemicals, as their own Weapons of Mass Destruction.

From the reports I heard, this accident was easily avoidable . . . the switch sent the train onto the wrong track.

Who is in charge of these switches?