(La Junta, CO) -- A short video clip that was shared by Otero County resident Wayne Walter garnered a lot of attention Sunday morning. The footage showed a train in the La Junta railyard with two cars overturned from the middle of the train. And while this is interesting local news to the small community of La Junta, how common is it for a train to derail?
According to Time magazine on-line with information from the Associated Press, more than 12,400 train derailments over the past decade and of these accidents, roughly 6,600 tank cars were carrying hazardous materials and 348 cars released their contents. (Information from the Department of Transportation)
Train derailments have been in the news much of late however. In February Norfolk Southern, a railway company in the East faced an investigation following a derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
Five fairly large accidents have happened in the last couple of years reports Time magazine.
A crew will be called to clean up the derailed cars in the yard in La Junta and an investigation will follow. It's not known if the clean up will delay Amtrak, a passenger rail service that uses the La Junta terminal. A BNSF crew will likely sit with the train while the clean up occurs. An investigation will happen into the derailment. At this time, it is NOT known what is inside the two overturned rail cars and it is not known if they are loaded or empty.
We have contacted BNSF for more information and will have it when they contact us back.
Here's what BNSF has posted concerning safety and security on their website:
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