Does anyone have more info or pictures? I think this was a northward empty coal train, but I’m not sure.
It was a southbound loaded BNSF coal train with one fatality.
Recent photos indicate the lead locomotives had cleared the overpass when the derailment occurred; if so, they must be in the Pueblo yard about ten miles south.
Did the train take the bridge out, or did the bridge fail first?
Happened very quick, I think. The fatality is likely to be that tractor-trailer’s driver, from the cab being either under part of the bridge or the coal falling over it.
That was a question I had as well looking at the pictures. The span over the SB lanes appears to be intact, while the NB lanes is the disaster. The fatality is reported to be the truck driver who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The main detour is reported to be US-50 west to COLO-115 at Penrose for all NB traffic and heavy SB traffic and another SB detour for passenger cars. Gonna be fun for a few days.
That was who the news reports said it was.
I see a switch on the NE side.
Which ‘could’ have affected a train going bottom to top. Top to bottom movement would have been trailing through the switch.
Thinking they may have already been a wheelset on the ground.
I know, I know … wait for the NTSB … [:P]
One thing we have not considered: did the truck someway strike the bridge causing it to shift. Seems unlikely but a possibility.
Very clear to me that the bridge structure fell over on the truck. That bridge is supported on high, slab abutments on either end, with the shoes far above the visible roof height of the van. The cab would not have been higher.
In any case, it’s the far corner of the bridge deck that dropped first, and it’s come to rest on the trailer nose and, possibly, part of the tractor. Much more of the combination would have gone through had the truck somehow lifted up and disengaged that far corner.
Note no collision damage to the near bridge lower member at all, and no striking deformation I can see in the underpanels that would indicate sufficient contact to lift and displace the bridge.
I would opine that since it’s an Interstate, an apparently standard box trailer would not have had an issue with the bridge. I don’t see any “low clearance” markings on the bridge, and my uncalibrated eyeball says the truck would have cleared with no problem. I suspect it’s a “wrong place, wrong time” thing.
As noted before, the possibility of the bridge collapsing under the train exists, but the stronger possibility is that the derailed cars caused the bridge to fail. Why the cars derailed remains to be seen following the investigation.
The bing map shows the tracks w/o the train.
There are no guard rails on the tracks on the bridge over the interstate.
NTSB on scene. Truck driver was from California.
It appears that everything is on the table at this point, including the possibility that the truck might have caused the bridge to fail - that from the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson.
Just announced: Broken rail caused the derailment. Details will follow.
When I was working - the number of times a train in signaled territory would leave a track circuit lit after it had departed the track segment and when the anomaly was investigated by signals/MofW and was found to be a Broken Rail. Such a occurrence is proof that the rail broke under traffic of the train. There but for the grace of God was a derailment that didn’t happen.
To make things even more complicated, I’ve read reports that the bridge is owned by the state, not the BNSF. This should keep some lawyers busy for a while.
Yes, the Santa Fe track from Pueblo to Denver was in this location when the State wanted to build in a new location and so they “contracted” with Santa Fe for an underpass and paid Santa Fe for its temporary “shoofly” during the overpass construction. This was in 1956-1958 approximately.