Train Derailment Results In Quick Response

September 2, 2004

Local law enforcement officers, the Oneida Fire Department and Scott County Ambulance Service were all on the scene within minutes of Friday night's train derailment in the Ponderosa Estates area of Oneida.

And although 19 cars of the northbound Norfolk-Southern freight left the tracks - with several of them overturning - no injuries resulted and no hazardous cargo was spilled. The clean-up of the scene and resumption of rail traffic was completed within 24 hours.

A call came into the Oneida Police Department around 7:30 p.m. that a train had derailed at Underpass Drive, which leads into Ponderosa Estates in south Oneida. Before a billowing cloud of dust had settled, one Oneida Police officer and a Scott County deputy were on the scene, and units from the Scott County Ambulance Service and Oneida Fire Department were en route.

Several other local law enforcement officers from both the city and county responded within minutes, and with the aid of firefighters from the Oneida Fire Department, the scene was secured within 15 minutes. Before 30 minutes had passed, a preliminary inspection of the overturned cars, as well as a check of the train's manifest, revealed that there was no hazardous material involved, and that an evacuation would not be necessary.

However, city and county officers were kept busy keeping bystanders away from the wreckage, as well as rerouting traffic from the scene. And that was the case for a full 24 hours following the derailment.

The derailment occurred in the middle of the train, as the first of several cars left the tracks just north of the signal tower. In a typical accordion effect, cars tumbled off the track, plowing up ties and gravel and twisting rail in the process. Three of the derailed cars tumbled off the west side of the underpass, two of them crashing into the roadbed below, and the third ending up in the undergrowth at the side of the road. Another rail car turned down an embankment just north of the underpass.

The engineer managed to stop the engine just north of the Scott Farmer's Co-op.

"It sounded like rolling thunder and just kept going on and on," said Linda Gail Garrett, who lives near the scene of the derailment.

Chief Deputy Marty Carson told the Independent Herald that he was driving south on U.S. 27 in Oneida when he heard "a loud screeching noise" and saw the white cloud of dust rise up into the air.

"I didn't know what it was, but I knew something big had happened," Carson said.

Oneida Police Officer Gerry Garrett said he was at the intersection of U.S. 27 and Depot Street when he got the call, and said dust was still settling at the derailment site when he arrived.

Officer Garrett and two Oneida firefighters, accompanied by a member of the train's crew, were the first to survey the wreckage and determine that there were no dangerous spills with which to contend. The four began atop the overpass and walked through the wreckage in both directions.

Garrett would later (around 9:15 p.m.) join a regional supervisor from Norfolk-Southern for a more detailed search for hazardous cargo, or "leaks of any kind."

news@ihoneida.com

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