A half-mile-long runaway freight train with 46 freight cars uncoupled and rolled backward a couple of miles early Monday, ramming into an oncoming freight train near Big Pasco.
The 3:40 a.m. accident derailed two locomotives hooked in tandem on the second train that was pulling 31 freight cars and caused a tanker car to spill about 10,000 gallons of methanol.
No one was hurt in the crash, which derailed or overturned 10 cars, said Gus Melonas, BNSF Co. spokesman. The crash was on BNSF property, just north of Port of Pasco property.
Three railroad workers in the cab of the locomotive that took the brunt of the collision from the runaway cars managed to scramble away unharmed because other railroad employees radioed ahead to the cab crew to flee to safety.
Melonas said a faulty coupler is suspected of breaking loose on an 80-car train as it headed north toward the hump yard near Fourth Avenue north of downtown Pasco. It's not clear how fast the runaway cars were going.
It is about five miles between the hump yard and where the crash happened just west of East Road 40 at the far east end of Big Pasco. Melonas said exactly where the train separated is being investigated.
Chief Les Litzenberger with Franklin Fire District 3 said early reports indicated the train broke free about halfway between Big Pasco and the hump yard. That would be close to where the tracks cross Lewis Street.
Melonas said the two locomotives on the second train stayed upright, but the first three tanker cars behind them were knocked off the tracks and onto their sides, scattering their wheels and axles.
Liquid methanol began leaking from one of the 30,000-gallon cars, while the two others containing calcium chloride did not spill.
Seven other cars in the runaway train also left the tracks. Two contained corn syrup, two held ammonium nitrate in pellet form and two were carrying paper. One other car was empty, Melonas said.
About 75 people from a half-dozen fire dep
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