from Environmental News Service
Two Union Pacific Railroad train crew members have died and two others were hurt when two freight trains collided head-on in northeast Arkansas early Sunday morning, according to Arkansas State Police.
At approximately 3 am, Arkansas State Troopers were notified of the collision in the Lawrence County town of Hoxie, about 90 miles northwest of Memphis, Tennessee.
Union Pacific Railroad officials said both trains were carrying toxic chemical cargo.
As a precautionary measure about 500 Hoxie residents within 1.5 miles of the collision were evacuated to the Walnut Ridge Community Center.
A fire involving one of the train engines took seven hours to extinguish but did not threaten any of the toxic cargo.
“The fire involved diesel and also there was a tank car that ruptured and it contained an alcoholic beverage,” Arkansas Department of Emergency Management spokesman Kendell Snyder told reporters.
All highways leading into Hoxie were blocked by Arkansas State Police and local law enforcement personnel. Some roads are now open, but Highway 67 south of Highway 63 and Highway 67 at the intersection with Highway 230 will remain blocked for up to three days while railroad crews remove wreckage.
Highway 91 remains open as an alternate route for motorists traveling to Walnut Ridge and the Hoxie area.
Most of the evacuees were allowed to return by noon Sunday, according to county emergency management officials.
The fatal incident comes just three days after Union Pacific boasted on its website that the railroad achieved a record low 2.95 reportable rail equipment incident rate for the first half of the year through June 30, a four percent improvement over the same period in 2013.
Michael Hiller, an investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, told The Associated Press that the collision involved a train with two locomotives and 86 cars and another with two locomotives and 92 cars.
The first train was northbound on a single main track when the second train, which was southbound, collided with it, he said. Hiller said they were operating on the same track. The cause of the accident is under investigation.
