Trains collide in Missouri causing overpass to collapse, 7 injured!!

Just a couple of days after the bridge in Washington collapse, this happens... Scary situation for sure and hope everyone is OK!!

Two freight trains collided and derailed early Saturday in southeast Missouri, then triggered the collapse of a highway overpass when several rail cars struck a support pillar.

usnews.nbcnews.com...

Good catch op...

Scott City Missouri

This is just north of the Hwy 60 East/West crossing which is the main Mississippi crossing between Memphis and St Louis. The rail line looks to be a primary crossing itself, unless this is on a spur or something...but it sure doesn't sound like it.

This could get messy for costs and hassles, assuming of course, it remains only injured and no one is killed from it.

Holy crap. Haven't heard any sirens. I live like 10 miles from there.

News report...

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
Good catch op...

Scott City Missouri

This is just north of the Hwy 60 East/West crossing which is the main Mississippi crossing between Memphis and St Louis. The rail line looks to be a primary crossing itself, unless this is on a spur or something...but it sure doesn't sound like it.

This could get messy for costs and hassles, assuming of course, it remains only injured and no one is killed from it.

Your post puts me in mind of Atlas Shrugged, what with the subject (railroads) and the transportation consequences...

I don't live that far from there but haven't heard anything until now...I am not surprised though..our infrastructure is crumbling...no money to fix or put new stuff in..Bridges are scary here...

Second train crash in a week. How strange. There was one outside of Fairfield, CT a week ago. The Skagit River crash was due to a truck that veered out of control--not so uncommon as colliding trains. The fact that the bridge and the overpass collapsed in both of those incidents could be a sign of our aging infrastructure. I believe that it was graded as being a D and bridges/overpasses being noted as being in the worst shape by the Army Corps of Engineers, I think, a few years ago.

Other train collision: www.nytimes.com...

Scott City is just a few minute drive from here. We were in St. Louis when this happened.

First we need to remember that just last week the railroads were closed in a good part of this area due to flood waters. Trains are trying to run as much as they can to play catch up with everything because the railroads here have been closed for a few weeks due to the flooding. You can see this in the last page of my thread about the troubles on the Mississippi river. We go from flooding one year to drought the next and back to flooding again.

Second is that just the other day I took a hike north on up the tracks to reach some fossiliferous matrix and even though the railroads are open once again the tracks are still far from being clear completely. Granted they are clear enough for trains to travel on but they could be cleared a lot more. For instance I seen a 4X4 laying long ways in-between the tracks that has been getting lightly hit by trains.

The flood waters also make the earth under the tracks quite liquid like and you can see plenty of places when a train is going trough that the train rocks and the rail ties and moving up and down. If you take a walk down the tracks you can see a lot of things that need repair. I think things have to get pretty bad before they really repair much.

While this is pretty tragic and will affect a bit of transport for several weeks I see no conspiracy in this. What I do see is a complete lack of communication to have two trains in the same area at one time. Often you can walk the tracks and you will have a few trains going one way and then an hour or more later a train going in the other direction. It is all about communication, and someone was seriously failing in this area. I am suspecting there was something involved in the way of drugs, alcohol, or a distraction that could have been avoided.

I will try to get over that way tomorrow or later this week (vacation is over and it would be Thursday before I can get a photo if not tomorrow). I do have to admit that this is a bit of a worry I have when I have to be around the tracks when collecting fossils. It is kind of scary just watching trains rock on the rails when going through a place as is. I have seen them rock as much as a few feet when traveling down the tracks.

Raist

While I have not been there yet, I believe this is the coordinates to the overpass that collapsed.

37.204782,-89.640027

If it is, it is the highway between Scott City and Chaffee (I was born in Chaffee when they had a hospital as a side note).

Raist

Well, I do recall headlines and fear mongering stories in the media 8-10 years ago about how the bridges were in danger of failing on a regular basis...our roadways were crumbling (sinkholes) and overall infrastructure was sliding down in a pattern that needs to be heading upward just to keep safe pace and maintain standards.

At least I took them to be more fear mongering.

I suppose all those headlines may have been about something important ...and we really ought to have started working on this whole infrastructure thing a good many years ago? Err.... Oops?

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


I totally agree the roads and railways both need repair. There are a lot (and by that I mean most) bridges in need of serious repair. Of course when you go up near St. Louis the roads are always being worked on somewhere. I-55 has been getting a ton of attention again. The roads near Scott City are terrible. I partly believe it has to do with county, because some have far worse roadways than others.

I think the biggest thing behind this though is a total fail of communication though.

Raist

What happened to the track signals or did one train run a stop?

So an overpass is built over a point where two railroad track cross.

Map link

reply to post by roadgravel


Not sure how the signals work. I do know they would do no good at a junction though because of how long it takes for them to stop. I have seen signals on just single straight rails before. The problem is that someone did not communicate on the radios correctly here. That can really be the only answer to this aside from someone not listening to the radio. You can bet someone will be in some deep stuff over this.

As for the overpass it has always been safe, aside from normal road conditions. It was actually in pretty good shape. The problem is about a dozen rail cars hit it.

I do not think one was stopped, as I understood it they were both moving. The trains going through that area are also very long usually with three or more engines pushing and pulling them.

Raist

Wow, this is happening a lot lately.

Heck, with the weather, wars and illnesses going around at this moment one could almost believe we are in the end of days.

reply to post by Raist


I would think the two railroads would have interlocked signals for the crossing. Can't just have trains flying down the rails into a crossing.

reply to post by roadgravel


True, but to be certain of safety you cannot rely on just lights. They could go out before someone knows about it. Radio communication is the most important way to know where the trains are. I am going to go with a breakdown in communications as this happening.

Raist

reply to post by Raist


Crews have been known to fall asleep after bypassing the safe guards.

But a comm failure probably is part of it.

reply to post by roadgravel


Being that a lot of my collecting happens beside tracks I cannot say I have seen any asleep. Though I have had some trains I could not see anyone in the train. Other times I have seen them very alert and waving as they pass.

I guess though being asleep would account for a communication failure though. I had not thought of sleeping crew. You make a good point with that.

I wish I had video of one area I was watching a train come around a slight corner and the train had a lot of rock to it as it went to straighten out. It wobbled for some time after the corner. Also around that area I watch a train wobble as it hit a "weak" spot in the tracks as the ties would sink into the ground as it was going passed. You could see the track jumping between axles.

Raist

i doubt much 'sleeping' goes on in todays world but you never know. It would seem someone just made a big mistake.

I did notice a signal on the south side of N-S single track near the crossing.

Other than Amtrak...ALL other railroads(I'm talking the big ones not mass transits for metro areas) are privately owned and operated. It is their responsibility to take a cut in profits AND repair their own stuff. It irks almost as bad as the energy company started to add a $10 per month NUCLEAR FEE SO THEY COULD BUILD ANOTHER PLANT INSTEAD OF BEING USING THEIR OWN PROFITS.