Train derails, strikes cars (The following article by Jill Gosche was posted on the Tiffin Advertiser-Tribune website on December 1.)
NORTH BALTIMORE, Ohio – A CSX train derailed, crashed into another train and injured drivers waiting at railroad tracks in downtown North Baltimore Thursday afternoon. Gerald Perry II, North Baltimore’s police chief, said the railroad gates were active and down, and the drivers were not at fault. “The cars were not on the tracks,” he said. Perry said three cars were waiting on the south side of the tracks when a westbound train came off the track for an undetermined reason. He did not know the speed of the train that had an estimated six to eight cars come off the track. The derailed train then struck a slow-moving, eastbound train carrying coal. Perry said flat steel from the westbound train smashed a car nearest the tracks, driven by Bob Loe, the village street superintendent. Perry said crews used the Jaws of Life to extract Loe from his vehicle, and Loe was talking to rescue workers during the process. Matt Swartz, another street employee, was driving the next vehicle in line, and his car was spun around near the tracks, Perry said. Swartz had been released from the hospital by 3:30 p.m. Thursday. Perry said he did not have information about the driver of a third vehicle but crews took the crash victims to Blanchard Valley Regional Health Center in Findlay and Wood County Hospital in Bowling Green. CSX spokeswoman Jane Covington said the crossing averages 100 trains per day. She said train crew members were not injured in the derailment, and the railway company has not determined the cause. “We would launch a multi-disciplined investigation,” she said. “Local authorities are part of the investigation, as well.” Convington said Thursday night CSX expected to have one or both tracks open by daybreak today. Willo Loe — Bob Loe’s mother — said she learned about the crash while watching televisio