Five BNSF crewmen were injured today when two BNSF freight trains collided head-on near Madera, California. Some of the crewmen jumped before the collision as others rode the engines to impact. One crewman remains in serious condition while the others were treated for minor injuries and released.
Madera is about 150 miles southeast of San Francisco. Amtrak also uses the railline and had to bus passengers. The line remains closed while railroad officials investigate the accident.
No hazardous materials were spilled but one engine did leak some diesel fuel. One train carried cement while the other carried pentane, a methane-based liquid fuel.
Those viewing the accident stated it was a miracle no one was killed. “It’s a big, mangled mess,” according to Erica Stuart, a spokeswoman for the Madera County Sheriff’s Office.
It happened at the end of a siding (Kismet). It appears as though it involved the M BARSTO and M RICBAR. The back end of the M RICBAR was on the mainline.
As to injuries, I have heard that one crewmemeber suffered a broken hip. I have heard that someone is in critical condition, someone is in serious condition, and the rest suffered minor injuries. Some news sources state three people jumped, some say four. At this point, it looks like three jumped. Last word is that none of the injuries appear to be life threatening.
Pentane is a “methane-based liquid fuel”? I am not a chemist or chemical engineer, but I seriously doubt it was made from methane. It probably came for the refinery in Richmond. Has anyone heard of it being used as a fuel? Perhaps it will be made into 2,2,4-trimethyl pentane and become part of gasoline.
what types were the locomotives? dash 9? because dont wide cabs exist because of the collision posts in them? if so, then well, what happens when 2 widecabs collide with each other?
god i hope these poor crewmembers will be ok. if only they were able to jump off before it happened. i’m positive they all would have if they could. man…[V]
Looking at all the video, there were two Dash 9 #4059 and I think #995, BNSF GP30 #2437, FURX SD40-2 #8110 and a former Conrail SD60 I think . There were two locomotives on the other side that I didn’t see.
So if the rear was sticking out onto the Main, and the other train hit that, how is it called a “Head-on”? Was there a control cab on the back end of the freight train that was on the main?[;)]
From that small amount of info, one would speculate the SB on the main ran/missed a stop indication, slamming into the train pulling into the siding…that’s my first guess, without any facts yet, of course.
I should have been clearer. The back end of the M RICBAR was sitting on the mainline next to the siding when I was there yesterday. See KFUZTV’s reply.
BNSF was detouring over UP yesterday. The line is reopened now.
I should note that those trains are my guess from the cars that were out there. All of the cars that were on the north bound train that did not derail were gone by the time I got out there yesterday. Initial reports were it was a local (too many 2 bay covered hoppers for that), then a cement train to the Bay Area. The latest is that it was a cement train to Polk (Sacramento area). They were changing the order of the cars on the M RICBAR, so LPG cars were not next to the locomotives, when I was out there and preparing to move them back north.
Notice that blue LPG car sitting on the mainline. It was still sitting on the mainline when I was there yesterday. When I went out there today, I noticed that they had knocked it off the tracks and let it roll down the em
The crew is very lucky to have had survived for the ones that stayed on thier loco’s. must have been veterans or engineers that belive to stay with their trains in a thing like this.
kfuztv- FURX 8110 is a ex BNSF exx BN in one of the news links there is a pic of a SD40-2 in green paint with a BNSF H1 loco off the tracks.
Spbed- Why do you have a smiley face in this topic which is a head-on collision or wreck that had 2 people in serious condition. What would happen if there was type of chorine in a taker involed in this wreck? would a smile be apporpeitte if there was a death or even a wreck?
This kinda reminds me of someone that put 3 smiley faces on a topic that had a Amtrak derail due to it hitting a dump truck and killing 2 people in Raleigh,NC. I wonder who that was?
There were serious injuries. The two crew members who stayed in the train were in serious and critical condition last night. Appearently they were both in serious condition this morning.