FELA Lawyer News Blog

REXBURG, ID – The Rexburg, Idaho fire and police departments discovered on Saturday, October 8, 2011 that two propane cars plus two gasoline cars derailed in Rexburg, ID on Friday, the day before, and the Eastern Idaho Railroad did not notify anyone about the mishap.

Rexburg is located in Madison County, Idaho in the Eastern part of the state about 30 miles northeast of Idaho Falls and about 284 miles east of Boise.

The accident caused authorities quite a scare, but a spokesman from the Eastern Idaho Railroad said that they did not feel that the incident caused any immediate danger.

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The derailment occurred on a section of track just south of Second North while some cars were being moved in Rexburg on Friday afternoon, October 7, 2011.

The railroad company believes that the derailment was caused by a broken rail. But we wish to point out that the accident is under investigation and that this is not an official announcement.

The local fire chief found out about the derailment through word of mouth. As soon as they found out about the incident, they quickly called in a Hazmat team to investigate.

The Madison Fire Department found out that the outer tanks of two of the propane cars had split. A total of four rail cars jumped the tracks, two of them were propane cars and this is what concerned the local authorities.

Two of the derailed cars had been carrying gasoline, but they were empty at the time.

Propane is highly flammable and had there been a leak, the situation could have been much more serious.

Luckliy, there was no leakage and no homes or businesses had to be evacuated. Also, no railroad workers were injured in the incident and no one was hurt as a result of the derailment.

The Federal Railroad Administration was subsubsequently called in by the Madison Fire Department. Equipment was called in from the environmental cleanup service company, Pacific West LLC, from Salt Lake City, UT to offload the propane on Tuesday, October 11, 2011.

Once the propane had been siphoned out of the derailed tanker cars a crane was brought in to right the derailed rail cars onto their tracks.

Although it appears that there is no evidence of wrongful intent on anyone’s part, someone definitely dropped the ball in this case. The derailment should have been reported immediately.

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FELA Lawyer News Blog is a FELA, train accident and personal injury blog that publishes up to date train accidents and FELA legal news from across the United States. The Federal Employers ‘Liability Act, (FELA) allows injured railroad workers to recover compensation based on the negligence of the railroad company, in lieu of workers’ compensation. FELA defines negligence as the railroad company’s failure to use reasonable care.

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