October 3, 2003 Bowie, TX - BNSF put 39 cars on the ground at Fruitland, a siding 5 miles south of Bowie, TX. (my old stomping grounds) This was an extremely violent crash, and resulted in many of the cars catching fire....mostly centerbeams but including one tanker of hydrogen peroxide. Most of the centerbeams derailed on the outside of a curve and were not readily accessible for photos, but their former cargo resulted in a MASSIVE pile of sheetrock that dwarfed the twisted cars piled up beside it. A passing motorist on parallel highway 101 struck "debris" and lost control of his vehicle, causing it to roll several times. The driver was not seriously injured. Here are a few photos I took on Sunday. http://www.railimages.com/albums/dougandreasen/aad.jpg http://www.railimages.com/albums/dougandreasen/aae.jpg http://www.railimages.com/albums/dougandreasen/aaf.jpg http://www.railimages.com/albums/dougandreasen/aag.jpg http://www.railimages.com/albums/dougandreasen/aah.jpg http://www.railimages.com/albums/dougandreasen/aai.jpg http://www.railimages.com/albums/dougandreasen/aaj.jpg [ 08. October 2003, 05:31: Message edited by: Doug A. ]
Wow! Looks like it was away from any homes and businesses. That's good. Have they determined a cause? Boxcab E50
Yes the cause was determied as poor train handleing and excessive speed. I worked the job that took some of the slightly damaged cars to alliance car shop for repairs. The rest of the Maltbar was pulled into a siding to be picked up by another westbounder.
Well, This just shows how careless some people are starting to get around the world these days. They have regulations and speed limits for a reason. Unforunately, there could have been millions of dollars in merchandies from certain companies on this train... and if they didn't have this stuff insured, sadly this can kinda "screw them over." Depending on how big of a company it was, they could be set back quite far and if they wanted to, could sue BSNF or the employee(s) operating this train. Just my $0.02 worth! Matt
