The Accident took place in May 2013. A Mack Granite truck was being operated by Alban Waste headed to the northwest on a private road in Rosedale. The truck was ferrying waste to a recycling center. A freight train owned by CSX consisting of two locomotives with 30 empty cars and 13 loaded cars was headed southwest. The two meet at a private grade crossing; the train horn sounded the required times, but the Mack Granite truck failed to stop and collided with the train. The derailed cars released their products; three carried inside them hazardous materials, one contained sodium chlorate crystals, while four cars contained terephthalic acid. There was a post-crash fire which resulted in an explosion causing widespread damage to property. The truck driver was severely injured while three people and a police officer who rushed in to assist wounded in the explosion that followed the accident (NTSB 4).
An Oversize Combination Vehicle strikes the I-5 Skagit River Bridge
The accident took place in May 2013. It involved a truck-tractor in combination with a semitrailer that was hauling a large sized load. The aspen truck-tractor vehicle was headed south on I-5 close to Mount Vernon, Washington. The oversize vehicle had obtained a route permit for the road it was using. It was being directed by an escort pickup truck. The oversized load struck the bridge and damaged its structure as the vehicle moved over the Skagit River across the I-5 Bridge. The aspen oversize vehicle did not stop but continued to travel and stopped south of the bridge on I-5. The structural damage from the contact with the wide load caused the bridge to collapse into the river. A pickup towing a travel trailer together with a Subaru drove straight into the Skagit River. A truck-tractor that was combined with a refrigerated semitrailer and a BMW also came into contact with the oversize combination vehicle on the road (NTSB 3)
Metro-North Employee Fatality
The accident took place in West of Connecticut on May 28, 2013. The accident involved the Metro-North passenger train 1559. The 1559 train was moving at a speed of 70mph when it hit and instantly killed a foreman. The accident also resulted in the damage of equipments belonging to the Metro-North railroad. The foreman was working on track one where he was relocating pieces of rail from track 1 to the industrial track 5 with the help of a crane. The foreman had requested rail traffic controller to remove track one from service from 10: 42am to 4:00pm to create an exclusive work area. The foreman, therefore, requested the rail track controller to permit him to proceed to move the crane from the main track 2 to main track 1. The crane was positioned in the exclusive work area after the authority was granted, and it was placed on industrial track 5. The foreman reported to the control center that he was in the clear of interlocking on track five before proceeding to work at the West Haven platform. The foreman was working facing the west direction while the train approached from the east. The crane operator could not tell which track the train was on due to the presence of a curve and only realized too soon that it was on track 1. He managed to move the crane, but the foreman was struck and killed (NTSB 2).
Works Cited.
National Transportation and Safety Board.” Collapse of the Interstate 5 Skagit River Bridge Following a Strike by an Oversize Combination Vehicle: Mount Vernon, Washington.” (2013). Web. 3 Dec. 2014.
National Transportation and Safety Board.” Highway Grade Crossing Collision: Rosedale, Maryland. (2013). Web. 3 Dec. 2014.
National Transportation and Safety Board.” Metro-North Railroad Employee Fatality.” (2013). Web. 3 Dec. 2014.
