FELA Lawyer News Blog

BLADENSBURG, MD – A hazardous spill occurred as a result of a mysterious derailment of a CSX locomotive in Bladensburg, MD on Tuesday, November 29, 2011.

Bladensburg is located in Prince George’s County, MD in the west-central part of the state about 26 miles southeast of Rockville, 20 miles southeast of Bethesda and about 7 1/2 miles northeast of Washington, DC.

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The accident happened shortly before 3:00 p.m. on November 29 in an industrial park near the 52nd Avenue rail crossing about a mile from the Washington, DC border.

The locomotive hit a derailer and tipped over just before the crossing.

Over 1500 gallons of diesel fuel was leaked as a result of the derailment. A hazmat team from Prince George’s County assisted the railroad company in the cleanup. The fuel spill was contained.

Fortunately, there were no injuries as a result of the hazardous materials spill. No evacuations had to be ordered and no railroad workers were injured in the mishap. Also it was good fortune that there were no interruptions to commuter rail traffic.

An article in the WUSA9.com website reported on the story:

According to Prince George’s County Fire Spokesman Mark Brady … the CSX locomotive hit a derailer on a side track, which caused the locomotive to ‘flip partially off of the tracks.’ Brady says the safety train derailer did what it was supposed to do.

According to CSX, the derailment remains under investigation.

Wait a minute. We have a couple of questions:

• Why would the railroad use a derailer on the locomotive?
• Was anyone on board at the time?
• Was there a conductor?
• Was anyone at the wheel at all??
• Was it a runaway?
• What’s the story?

Unfortunately, there were no definitive answers to some of these questions in the press reports we could find on this incident. The information that was conveyed in the article was somewhat vague:

Brady says collisions at the location happen several times a year and that the train moves slowly in the area.

What collision?

There was a post on a forum about the mishap and one poster made some interesting comments. The post was at the OGR On-Line Forum website:

I know it was reported on the news as a CSX train derailment, but what really happened was the stone plant was using a lease CSX motor (in remote control, I might add), and the thing got away from them, and ran out on the main.

It is interesting to note that NBC Washington website also ran a story on the incident and contained in the url for that post is the headline: “Truck-CSX-Train-Collide-in-Prince-Georges-County”

Apparently the story was first reported as a collision with a truck. It turned out that what actually happened was that the incident involved a single locomotive that was halted by a safety device (a derailer) that is used to stop a train.

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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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